A New Way to Play
by Enits'ju
Summary: We all heard of people being pulled into their video games? What if there was actually someone purposely pulling people into the games? You're playing more than a video game. You're playing his sick game now. To one who plays god no one is safe.
1. The New Game Console

I felt inspired recently, and wanted to go back and do my first fic justice. I wanted to write something and just decided to rewrite it. I believe I came up with idea back when I was around 14 or 15 years old. I haven't written anything in awhile, and this is reminding me how much I missed it.

I'm tired of the unexplained transporting to video game route. Enjoy the mystery and intrigue I put on my version of the concept. You'll find out more about it as the story progresses. Plus if I ever finish this fic it has the setting already in place for a prequel.

Disclaimer: I don't Final Fantasy. I'm just butchering it for our entertainment.

* * *

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter One: The New Game Console

"Steve, you have no idea have much it really sucks over here!" The teen yanked the phone away from his ear. Steve ran a hand through his tousled auburn hair at his friend's ongoing melodramatic laments. He sighed rolling his green eyes knowing that his friend could not see it. You think that the guy you used to wrestle around in the dirt would thrive in the great outdoors. Nope, still whining like a baby after fifteen_ long _minutes. "Well, I'd like to see you after you had all _your underwear _used as a bear chew toy!"

Did he say that out loud? He began sniggering as he registered what was just said. "You know what? I would've loved to see you after that little episode. Tell me are you enjoying the bears attempt at high end fashion or are you going commando?"

"FUCK YOU, KNIGHT!" Immediately following that little statement Steve could hear a reprimand from a woman's voice over the phone. "Sorry mom…"

Steve imitated his friend's apologetic tone and added, "I know you don't want me to promise that to guys because I know how much you want grandchildren, but I can't help how I feel."

"You are a bastard!" This time the reply has hissed at a lower volume. It didn't help Steve in the least to control his chuckles. "You are getting it when I get back. This time I'll wipe the floor with you. There's a reason why I'm MVP."

"Whatever! You can't wipe nothing except maybe that bear drool off your ass!" The answering growl was music to his ears. "Besides being named Michael Victor Porter does not make you MVP." They laughed at the old joke for a bit before the teen changed the topic. "Did I tell you what happened last week?"

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that your aunt was coming over for a visit."

"Step aunt. She and my mom are nothing alike. I didn't even know I had an aunt." Steve threw himself down on his blue-striped bed. "Aunt Sophia is a total snob from France. I think she was hiding from an ex-boyfriend or something when she came over to visit. You should have seen my mom's face when she was talking on the phone. It was like she was reliving some horrific childhood memories.

"That bad?"

"Words cannot describe the horrors. I think my mom tried to strangle her with the garden hose at one point. Unfortunately dad was close by and stopped mom. She then sort of got drunk and blew up the living room."

"Shit!"

"Oh no wait I haven't gotten to it yet. She also blew up my PS2, the TV, part of the wall, and her cat. Dear old auntie just happened to dump her wine on all the electronics when she got a little to personal with the TV trying to get her cat that was hiding under it."

"That's rough buddy."

"Are you quoting that Avatar cartoon?"

"Uh…no?" Mike sounded guilty for some reason. "So what are you doing now that everyone is gone for the summer and your entertainment is dead?"

"Contemplating suicide. Just dig me back up when you get back from your little camping trip."

"This is lame. What we need is-"

"ARRRRGH!" The cry was very high-pitched and barely heard over the sound of Steve's bedroom door slamming open. Suddenly there was a very nimble, acrobatic, seven year old launching himself at the red head on the bed.

Not even startled the teen caught the boy by his stomach with his feet, and using his momentum chucked him across the room towards his armchair stacked with his dirty laundry. It was a good thing he never picked up after himself, or there wouldn't be any cushion. The maneuver resulted in green eyed teen to flip over his head off the bed and onto his feet in one movement.

The little boy landed headfirst into the pile, his back hitting the back of the chair with his legs in the air over it. The force sent the chair tipping towards the wall, but using the same agileness Steve had shown he kicked the wall sending the chair back onto the ground with a slam as he tumbled off and onto his feet as well. Steve smirked when he noticed his little brother sporting his favorite boxers on his head. He started chuckling as he watched the shuddering dark haired boy peeled said article from his person. However he stopped abruptly when he noticed that he had lost ownership of his cell phone.

"Hey Mike, it's me James!" The boy chirped into the newly liberated phone. His green eyes the same shade as his brother's sparkled mischievously, but while his lit up the elder's darkened in anger. "Forget getting my brother a souvenir. You should just bring me back something."

The sixteen year old lunged at James. "BRAT!"

"BYE, MIKE!"

James hung up the phone and booked it out of the room with his brother following close behind. There were several crashes as they slid across the wooden floor. When James reached the top of the stairs, he threw himself onto the banister and slid down perfectly balanced. Steve with a larger frame didn't bother and just leapt down the steps four steps at a time.

The red head almost caught up until James noticed his plight and leapt off the banister and scampered into the kitchen. Steve followed with a roar, but stopped short as he almost pelted into his mother who was holding James by the seat of his pants almost a foot or two in the air. The red headed woman was not wearing her happy face.

"Honestly it's like I can't leave you two alone for a few minutes." The woman mused eyeing her two ruffled sons. "Does anyone want to explain or can we start acting civil without cart wheeling and somersaulting off the walls? You know it annoys your father."

Her eldest just shrugged his shoulders sheepishly in apology, while James just grinned flailing his arms and legs wildly from his airborne position. His mother just smiled warmly lifted him higher and then lower, and soon the boy was making airplane noises with his arms spread out. Apparently their apologies were accepted as their mom tossed the mail she was carrying in her other hand onto the kitchen counter to help James execute more elaborate airplane maneuvers. The teen pulled out a bar stool and sat at the counter.

Finally she returned her boy to the earth, and asked "Darling, since you have so much energy, can you help me set the table?" The dark head bobbled once as he went off to his task, and their mother went to check the oven. "Oh, Stephen, there's going to be a demonstration at the gymnasium in a few days. Danny was going to do the parallel bars but he pulled something, and I don't think he's going to be recovered enough by then."

"Sure, it's not like I have a lot to do." Idly he began to sort through the mail as his mom went through preparing the rest of their dinner.

Every once in awhile she would dump something that she wanted delivered to the table into James' arms as he walked by. She never took her eyes off whatever task she was doing even as she pushed a plate that was falling back onto the pile in James' arms. It was all done without missing a beat. Steve called it her Mom senses, but his friends' opinion differed. His friends always said it was a surreal experience coming over, and seeing them use amazing body coordination and sometimes ignore gravity.

His mom was a gymnastic teacher and it has been awhile since Steve's been on the bar or on the floor at her gymnasium. Steve hasn't been to his mom's gymnasium lately because there was new girl attending classes. Practicing gymnastics did have a way of conditioning one's body, and it was like that girl never seen an athletic male body in her life. Let's just say that Steve has had the most awkward moments of his life in those few lessons then he had most of his life. Hopefully the girl wasn't disciplined and dropped the class.

His dad on the other hand was the only person in the household that like to keep both feet on the ground. It would probably surprise most of his students if they knew that their reserved professor had married a much younger woman who actually tumbled right into his life. It was a source of constant amusement to his mom, since both of the boys seemed to inherit her agileness, grace, recklessness, and being adrenaline junkies. Even James at only seven was turning to be a prodigy at it.

Just as Steve was about to throw an advertisement in the junk mail pile his eye caught just what it was advertising. His eyebrows nearly touched his hairline. Those were some seriously cheap game systems and all for the promotional grand opening. It seemed like Pete's Gaming Software was opening in the area. Mentally crunching the numbers in his head he found that he could afford it himself. He absently noted that the thing was addressed to him. A large grin spread across his face as he let out a loud whoop. The loud sound startled James so badly that it was only thanks to his mom's fast reflexes that the glasses didn't break.

* * *

There it was nestled between the coffee shop and a clock shop. The shop had the appearance of being new, so much in fact that Steve doubted that they were opened. The sign was even finished yet, but Steve could see that it was going to read Pete's Gaming Software. The windows were still a little dirty, but at least the windows were fully opened. Walking closer to the said windows he peered into the store and dully noted that the merchandise was partly unpacked. Just what was he getting himself into? The place really looked unprofessional, and they had already sent out its flyers for their opening.

He sighed and squaring his shoulders walked through the doors. The door squeaked loudly, and immediately a head popped out from the back room. "A delivery?" The man pushed adjusted his square glasses quickly as if in disbelief, and then after a moment he smiled and a lanky body emerged from behind the wall. He didn't seem to be that old probably a few years older than Steve himself, but for a moment Steve had thought he was older. Maybe it was the beard he was growing or the heavy lens of his glasses, but the one thing that really threw him off was that the guy was wearing a black turtleneck even though it was summer. His whole appearance made him more cut out to be next door at the coffee shop reading poetry or something, instead of at a video game store.

"Please tell me you're the one who was delivering the shelves! We've been trying to track down those deliveries all day." The man then took a closer look at Steve and finally noticed that no delivery man would be dressed so casually nor be that young. "Wait a second what are you doing here?

"Wha?" Steve was taken aback. Well this was turning out to be odd. "Err… I was hoping to get a look at your game systems."

"Of course that's what we all hope for people who come in here look for, but we don't open till Monday."

Steve ran a hand through his hair frustrated. This was getting confusing according to the flyer it said that the store was already opened. He quickly pulled the flyer out and handed it to Jack whose eyebrows nearly touched his hairline as he read it.

"I want to know why you are sending these out if you aren't opened yet." Steve demanded as he watched Jack clean his glasses and peer closer at the logo as if he could prove it authenticity.

"This can't be right." The lanky man started towards the back ignoring the teen's suspicious question, his face had lost all color. "This can't have been sent we haven't even finished designing it."

Steve forgot his earlier suspicion this was proving to be more interesting. With nothing better to do and wanting to get to the bottom of it he followed the man to the back. He walked into an office that reflected the state of the rest of the store. It was more or less half unpacked and Steve had to wonder at the wisdom of letting some important looking documents lie scattered about.

"Jack, you finished the flyers? Good job, man! I was going to finish it sometime in the next two days, but I guess I don't have to worry about that now. I knew I made a good choice when I hired you." A voice rumbled behind the desk there was no one in the chair and for a moment the red head blinked several times not comprehending. Was the desk praising the older teen?

A sigh brought his attention to Jack who appeared to be addressing the desk, "Uncle Pete, I didn't realize making a _good choice _translated in you were too lazy to hire help in time for the opening of your store. Remember I'm only here till your shop is set up and you finally hire your own people." The older teen chided his voice laced in his obvious frustration that was apparent in his stance.

There was a snort and Steve heard the sounds of papers being shuffled. Abruptly a large hand appeared from behind the desk and more or less smacked a pile of papers onto the only clear space that had existed on the desk. "I was never very organized that's why I asked for your help, but do you have to sound so stuffy about it? You're young. You have plenty of time to be stuffy later in life, and besides if you act like you have a rod up your ass all the time you might scare the customers. I'm so stiffy! Kids, if you want to be stiffy like me just stick a rod up your butt. Because being stiffy is nifty."

The lanky man's nostrils flared and he made a small noise in his throat but other than that didn't show any other response to _his_ _uncle's_ comment. "If you must know I wasn't picking up your slack. There's a kid here out front..." Steve coughed rather conspicuously and Jack corrected himself. "...here in your office who has just informed me that someone sent this to his house. This flyer in _your_ store's name. Advertising _your_ merchandise. Stating that _Pete's Gaming software_ has just opened."

"Wha-?!" That response was coupled with a dull thud as the whole desk rocked forward and shortly followed by a string of half coherent murmurs. Jack dragged a hand slowly down his face. The older man seemed unaware that the action tugged his features down making him quite a sight, and despite the seriousness of mysterious, ghostly game advertisements Steve couldn't help it as he almost choked on a snort before he was lost in laughter at that whole scene in front of him. Perhaps a guy sighing and making faces at a cursing, bucking desk would do that to anyone.

"So I guess you failed to get to the 'being stiffy is nifty' line before you brought him in here?"

* * *

"So let me get this straight?" Pete was once again seated properly behind his desk comparing the flyer that Steve brought in to the one he was working on. Pete was a big powerfully looking man. It seemed odd that he was running a video game store as he looked like someone you expect to be a the gym working out most of their time. "This was sent to your house yesterday?" Steve nodded wearily he felt like they went through this fifty times already. Jack rolled his eyes in sympathy. "The letter was sent in our address and everything. It looks like it mentions everything I want mentioned except..." The man let his words trail off as he drummed his thick fingers on the desk. The thuds echoed loudly in the room. "Tell me are you this Stephen Knight that it's addressed to?"

Steve raised an eyebrow at that question. "Yes, is there a problem with that?"

The man paled and he began shuffling through his numerous piles of papers while Steve wondered if there was anything odd about what he just said. Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for under a Mario paperweight on the floor. He checked the paper that he just dug out. "Dear Lord, it's the same name."

The teen wanted nothing more than to leave and pretend this whole thing didn't happened. Despite the allure of a cheap PS2 he felt he was getting in over his head. "Well... you can keep those, and I'll just be on my way. I don't think I need a game system since badly." Steve eased himself out of the chair.

"Wait! Hear me out this is important!"

"Err... I find it really hard to believe you. You've been overreacting to a flyer for the past half hour. You can spaz over that piece of paper and your nephew, _Mr. Nifty Stiffy,_ can run your little store and I'll just buy a PS2 somewhere else... somewhere far away."

The man's deep voice lowered to a whisper. "Someone left a package in our shop to be picked up by one Stephen Knight."

"W-wha?" The red head stuttered oh-so-intelligently. This was the last thing he was expecting to hear, and with his slight hesitation the large man shoved him back into the wooden chair.

"Jack, close the windows and lock that door!" Even as he barked out the orders to the other room, Pete locked and closed all the windows in his office. A short while later Jack joined them in his office.

Once Pete was satisfied he cleared his throat his mood solemn. "Let me explain. I was not originally going to open my store here. I was going to go open it in the next town actually, but a series of strange events made that impossible. Shortly after that I was looking for a new place for my store. A real estate agent contacted me that this store was available for purchasing. I thought it was fine it's not that far to drive here from where I live.

I started ordering the merchandise and setting up the shop. Then that's where things got a little strange. A shipment came in, but along with it was another package from someone named Stephen Knight. The package included some type of game system and requested that we repaired and that he was going to be picking it up when it was finished. Course when I opened it, it didn't resemble any system I've ever seen. Then I noticed that it was sent from the same P.O. Box as the guy who sold me this place." Mike sighed looking weary. "Looking at you I don't think you're the one who sold me this place. You're just a kid."

"Well, maybe we have the same name? If he sold you this place doesn't he have some numbers on file from when this place was sold on file?" This whole situation seemed to be over the teen's head.

"I checked. All those numbers no longer work. I think there's something weird going on. There seems to be a fellow who has a lot of power to influence legal matters to force me to open my shop here, just so that there is a place for you to pick up this package. Let me tell you boy I don't like being used as a delivery boy."

"If it's like you say, then I wonder how this person knew that my aunt was going to blow up her cat and my PS2 last week."

Pete choked. "Blew up her cat?!"

"She was drunk at the time. I do remember that the cat's tail was on fire. I think when she spilled the wine it made it worse." In hindsight it was sort of funny. Steve started to laugh.

Jack smacked the younger teen up side the head. "Focus! We do not need to be hearing about your drunken aunt's hobbies." His rant was cut off when even his Uncle began to giggle, and that was an odd sight to see a man as large as him giggling like a little schoolgirl. "Uncle Peter!"

After a few moments they were finally able to pull themselves together, but not without a few exploding cat sound effects. "Alright back to what I was saying. Why would a guy go through all the trouble of getting this PS2 to you? Whatever the reason is I don't think it's all pure goodwill."

"I'm nothing special." Steve grudgingly muttered. "You don't think it's something as serious as that do you?"

"This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"Can I see this strange console?"

Pete frowned and messaged his temples as he thought it over. At long last he nodded at Jack who swept out of the room again. The big man fidgeted nervously, and his nervousness was making Steve nervous. It wasn't like the game system was going to bite him was it? A second later the lanky man was back and placing a box on the floor, and pulling the cardboard flaps open. Jack shifted through some of the packing material and pulled something warped up in even more protective material. He pulled it off and revealed a blocky thing of electronics. Steve stared at it curiously, and seeing the question is his gaze Pete answered.

"It came like that. Many of these parts are able to come off like a PS2 memory card." Pete then pulled apart a good portion of the box and showed him that it contained the game tray for disks. I tried it out you can play disk games here. I haven't checked all of it though."

The thing was very irregular in shape. Very blocky and there were quite a few open slots like it was missing some of it accessory items, but despite it's odd appearance Steve could tell where all the important parts were.

"Now we have a paper saying that you were going to be picking it up. I think this system is meant for you, but I have to ask you." Pete wrapped up the system drawing Steve's attention away from it. "Do you want to take the risk of taking it? This gift some guy out there went to a lot of trouble manipulating events to get it to you."

He thought about it biting the inside of his cheek. The whole thing seemed bizarre and weird, and most likely the stupid thing wouldn't work. His recklessness began to stir and affect his thinking. It wouldn't really hurt to take it would it. Steve really wanted to get to the bottom of it. "Sure why not. If this guy really wanted me to have that weird thing he would find some way to get it to me, if he has as much influence as you think."

The storeowner sighed and shook his head, "I had a feeling you would say that. Fine, you can have it for free. One thing though." He paused making sure the teen was paying attention. "You'll be careful, and you'll tell me if anything else odd happens."

Steve nodded and the game console was placed back into the box and given back to him. Seeing as their discussion was over and Jack had once again began to open the windows, Steve turned to leave. He got as far as the doorway of Pete's office when the man spoke again.

"One more thing! You're a good kid if you ever need a job just give us a little visit. I could do with a little more non-stiffy human interaction."

Steve cracked a grin at that and Jack growled.

"I'm not STIFFY! Whatever that means?!"

* * *

Steve crashed onto his armchair after shoving his pile of dirty clothes to the floor. The teen was fresh out the shower and even he wouldn't sit in a pile of dirty clothes after that. He threw an arm over his tired green eyes. Since he was going to be filling in for Danny, Steve was making sure he was in top form. His mom seemed impressed with his performance, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that he was trying to distract himself of the mystery of the console.

Thinking of the console he glanced at it in the corner of his bedroom. It was still in the box where he placed it before he left to practice. Maybe now would be a good time to try it. His mom was taking James to a friend's house, and his dad was out seeing to the details for repairs for the living room.

He heaved himself to his feet and shuffled over to set up the game. Everything plugged in correctly even his PS2 controller worked. The red head hesitated, and then turned the thing on. Steve slowly let out a breath as nothing devastating happened. A quick glance out the window showed that it wasn't raining meteors.

Turning his attention back to the screen showed that it was prompting him to set the date and time. Well it wasn't that odd, but he did wonder if he was the first person to use the system. Spoke too soon, just what did it mean by time speed? His eyebrows knitted together in a frown. The options weren't offering him any clues; 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x and their negative counterparts. There wasn't a -1x strangely. He grunted and opted to just choose none.

Since he was using his old PS2 controller Steve decided he would play one of his PS2 games. He reached over and plucked out a game from the general location of where he kept his PS2 games. FFX, Steve hasn't played that in awhile. It had a good storyline, sad but good. It was less about big guns and sheer badass characters, instead focusing on the emotions of a world where mortality was truly fragile. Maybe that was why the religion was such a central role in the game. The disk was quickly inserted.

The teen grabbed his memory card when he noticed that there was something that resembled a memory card in one of the slots. He quickly placed his card into one of the slots, and then turned his attention to the card in the system already. Though to be honest it more resembled a slighter bulkier flash drive than a memory card. Trying to pull it out turned out to be a mistake.

"Ow!" Steve quickly pulled his hand back sticking his bleeding fingers into his mouth. A panel shut close as he pulled his hand away offering a quick glimpse of the sight of his blood covering the inner parts of the card. He takes it back. The game console does bite. It must've been playing docile at Pete's. He's going to get rabies. Can you get rabies from electronics? Would he get a virus?

His inner ramblings were broken off when the end of the rabid card folded open and revealed a small lens. The teenager's pride would not let himself admit that he shrieked when a light starting scanning him. Before he could further freak out a profile sheet popped up on the screen. Steve recognized himself in the picture, and before he could begin to read it another screen popped up.

SAVING…

"What the fuc-" The light started scanning again.

LOADING…

Suddenly Steve was feeling very lightheaded. He wobbled on his feet but found that he could not move from that spot. Then as opposed to everything going black instead everything went white; really really blindingly white. When the light show slowly faded from his retinas the green eyed teen found himself lying facedown on something translucent and glowing whitish blue. Picking himself up Steve found that he was now in a place up of more of those translucent blocks, floating glowing orbs, and endless black. This was worst than rabies, and he deeply regretted letting himself get bitten.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it. Well review and tell me how it is. Forgive me if I'm out of practice. I was just so excited to start writing again. Tell me if it was too much real world action. I was just trying to flesh out Steve's background and character.

Btw the next chapter is already 2 pages written. I might get it up sometime in the next week.

**ONE LAST THING:** I know most of these self insert fics are well inserting yourself into your favorite games. Well just for the record I'm a girl, XX chromosome. So no calling me Steve, or I'll sic my rabid electronics on you.


	2. The Land of Memories

I was going to post this up next week, but I got this done much earlier than I expected. I was practicing my fight scenes though I might have gotten a little carried away. Most of this chapter was inspired from the one day I was extremely bored. On that day I was just playing a bunch of games on all the game consoles that we owned (PS2, Gamecube, Wii). I'll be impressed if anyone can pick out what elements from what games were used.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. I'm just butchering it for our entertainment.

* * *

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter Two: The Land of Memories

Well wherever Steve was, he wasn't going to get treated for whatever diseases he picked up when the card bit him. Who's to say that he even went anywhere. For all he knows he could be passed out on the floor of his room. At least until his little brother comes back and tackles him.

It was a strange place he found himself in. The only sources of light seemed to be the large glowing translucent blocks that made up the platform that he currently was standing on, and the orbs of light trailing tails of lights behind them as they spun in lazy elaborate circles. There was something very familiar by the way those lights swirled about. The rest of the plane was just black. There were no sides and everything was very open and also very empty. Taking a quick peek over the edge showed that it was mostly empty, but off in the distance he could barely make out another formation of those blocks much like the ones he was standing on.

It was official. He was screwed. Either his hallucinations were a sign he was dying on his floor or he was abducted by aliens who were probably tired of cattle and moved on to taking humans. If he was hallucinating well there wasn't anything he could do. What exactly would you do if you were hallucinating? Were there steps for that kind of thing? Place your head between your knees? No wait, that was for dizziness wasn't it?

Well if he was abducted by the aliens it certainly was a strange space ship, but then again this was alien technology. Well the main plan for situations like this was to; knock out some guards, steal their weapons, take out a good number of them while discovering some weakness (Like maybe they melt in water), free any other captives, then one of the really hot captives would fall in love with him, and then escape in some emergency pod while the ship self-destructs. Steve thought it over for a moment and wearily concluded that he watched too many cartoons and movies. The teen cradled his head as he reevaluated his plans. Or at least that was what he was going to do when he noticed that his attire had completely changed.

White gloves and gauntlets with small blue lines running over them is what met his eyes when he lifted his hands to his face. The blue lines didn't curve but if it did it was only in right angles. Steve couldn't even feel them. It was like they were part of his hands. Even if he was wearing gloves the teen could still through them. He clenched a fist and some of the lines lit up. The whole thing design was very electronic. The rest of the outfit was mostly of the same design. There was some type of protective armor over his shoulders, elbows, and knees, and no matter have much he contorted himself he wouldn't get a good look at them. His sleeves ended shortly above the elbow pads things, and Steve felt like fainting when he saw where his skin was supposed to be.

He was freaking transparent! His other hand flew up and patted at his arm. The area where he applied pressure, his arm lit up creating a false appearance of solidness. When the teen removed the pressure from his arm it returned to its previous appearance. Looking closer he saw that even though he could see through his arm, he could still tell where it was. Like one of those 3D computerized models, white gridlines fleshed out his shape.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Steve felt his mouth moved as he spoke the words, but it didn't even feel like they came from his throat. It was like they echoed into existence around him.

Still freaking out he began hitting himself over the head chanting the mantra "Wake up wake up WAKE UP!" It didn't help that words echoing around him just reminded him of his strange situation. After bitch slapping himself out of his hysteria, Steve noticed that he was not actually hitting himself over the head. Reaching up he discovered what felt like a helmet. In his examination he accidentally pressed some button for a moment later a visor materialized in front of his eyes connecting to the rest of his headgear.

Suddenly he could see a strange structure in the middle of the block next to the one he was on. Done freaking out for now, he decided to investigate since it didn't look like he was waking up anytime soon. It was close enough that he could easily hop the distance. Steve walked up to the podium looking thing and it reacted to his presence when he was close enough.

Abruptly the block he was on started descending as others rose up on the sides. When all the sides were blocked off everything started glowing white. It was like he was now in a white room. Stepping away from the podium caused on of the walls to divide into a bunch of smaller squares and upon each there appeared an image. Steve paled a little when he finally put together what he was seeing.

"I-it can't be… this is my memory card."

He craned his neck and saw his Soul Caliber III data right next to his FFX data. This was really weird. In disbelief he reached out and touched the Kingdom Hearts II data in front of him. The square winked out of existence and that data showed up on another of the _walls_ of the room. Like a computer screen another screen popped up.

**Cannot find data with the Player Override.**

**Current data is incompatible to support the Player Gauntlet Mode. **

**Please create new data with Player Override or exit Player Gauntlet Mode and remove the Player's Card to activate Normal Mode.**

"Player Gauntlet Mode? Override?" Steve sighed repeating the words. "Is the Player's Card the thing I bled on?"

Unfortunately Steve never got an answer, and further investigating showed nothing new. Tired of the room Steve walked over to the podium wondering if it would work automatically. Luckily it did and brought him back to where he started. With nothing better to do he walked over to check out the light orbs that he noticed when he first woke up in this strange place.

There were seven of them. They danced about in a sphere their glow leaving trailing tails of light. It was almost mesmerizing it a way. Sometimes they were spread out just rotating in a circle and other times they paired off in twos condensing their light. Though because it was an odd number there was always one extra in one of the pairs.

Steve carefully reached under the lens of his visor and rubbed his eyes. It was not a good idea to stare at swirling orbs of lights for long periods of time. No matter how pretty they might be, but the teen now knew why they seemed so familiar. The knowledge didn't comfort him in the least. With all the times that his PS2 used to lag when it was loading games, there was no way Steve would not be able to recognize that pattern of moving lights. Either Steve was really in the game console or he was more traumatized by the abrupt death of his PS2 than he thought.

Well this was wonderful. Besides the podium leading back to the memory card room there wasn't anything else here. How was he supposed to get out of this place? Recklessly he swiped a hand through the circle catching one of the lights. The light covered the teen and pulled him in.

Then the little orb of light zoomed off into the black expanse. In no time at all Steve arrived at a new set of platforms. This new area was a lot larger and more expansive than the last one, and there seemed to be even more of those portals things littered throughout the structure. When Steve stepped away from his arrival point it marked itself with his name. Well at least he could find his way back.

Exploring the place he noticed that the terrain was noticeable more uneven than the one he just came from. Many times the blocks making up the structure would shift moving rearranging itself. Using his experience of jumping up onto the bars he climbed up some decent sized blocks that had just arranged itself into a staircase. From his vantage point he could see that the place was larger than he anticipated, and with the way it kept moving very hard to keep a mental map.

The rotating had placed a portal behind Steve and he jumped in. When the orb reached the platform Steve thought that it brought him back to where he started. Was this the same area or was it a completely new one? To check Steve headed over to Memory room as he now called it. As soon as the room formed Steve's visor vanished in a shower of pixels. That was weird. The game data wouldn't appear either. Walking up to the wall however got a reaction.

**Restricted access. **

**Invalid Player. **

**Data cannot be retrieved by invalid Player. **

**Last registered Player (Matthew Evans) violated Code 5.**

**All Player Overrides are now permanent.**

This was getting interesting. So he couldn't see the game data if he wasn't this Matthew, and that means no one else could see his. Does this mean that there were others like him? What was all this about a Code 5, and there was the override thing again. Maybe he would find something if he looked into another of the Memory rooms. With that plan in mind the teen left the room and returned to the shifting room.

Steve glanced around trying to find another portal when he heard a scream. He whirled around and something collided with him. They flew through the air until one of the blocks canceled their flight. With a groan the teen slid down his support under the weight of whatever hit him. When his eyes could focus he found that a smaller person was draped over his lap. Still dazed the person shifted a little and Steve mentally corrected himself with a blush when they brushed against him. It was a girl!

From what he could see from her back she was some version of the electronic outfit as well. Her headgear was different though covering the top and sides of her head. The sides had some kind of device covering her ears that protruded out a bit, but it allowed most of her hair to flow free. Steve felt his eyes practically pop out of his head. Her long hair was a mass of solid blue light. It was brightly pulsing just like the blue lines over both of their outfits.

She groaned in pain cursing some Genesis thing. The girl flipped her hair out of her face so that she could see, and Steve absently noted that it left a trail of light as it moved. She gasped and pushed herself up and onto her knees when she noticed that she had cushioning. The girl turned to Steve in horror and he froze at what met his eyes. It was like one of those plain white masks that people wear for Halloween, except for a few differences. There was blue light glowing out from where the eyes were supposed to be, and it was the same for her mouth. She did have some cool muted glowing markings on her… face? They were like tattoos. Her mask-like face hovered a little in front of where her real face should have been positioned. Steve could see the space when she turned away searching their surroundings for something. He could see from her neck that her skin carried the same qualities that his had. He wondered if his face also looked like that.

Suddenly he was pulled out his musings when she tightly gripped his arm. "You shouldn't be here! _You must leave!_" Steve allowed her to drag him to his feet where he towered a good head over her. There was a desperation and fear in her voice that Steve could not ignore.

A deep male voice started chiding the girl. "Now now, my dear, you shouldn't hog the game all to yourself. Don't you think we should all play nicely with one another?" The voice reached them long before they saw the owner. Another block some distance away was rising vertically and on it was a tall, broad figure.

Okay this situation was getting weirder and weirder the longer Steve stayed in this place. The newcomer's face was completely covered by his helmet, and he had these huge shoulder guards. Aside from those two things everything else was covered by a bright flowing cape made of light.

"I don't use people as playthings." The girl snapped back. "I can get you some barbies if you want."

The man's head tilted to the side as he regarded the teenager. "Don't be so rude, Ms. Sheridan, you'll scare off the new Player, and after all the work I put into inviting him here."

"It was you!?" Steve blurted out the question, staring at the mysterious person Pete warned him of.

"Please to make your acquaintance, Mr. Knight." The man mockingly bowed with a gloved hand placed over his heart. His cape fell open with the movement and Steve tensed. There was nothing underneath the cape. The gloves weren't attached to any arms, just floating about as if there were limbs controlling them. "I'm your gracious host, Genesis. I do hope you are enjoying this secret mode."

"Don't trust him!" The girl placed herself between Steve and the man as if to act as a barrier. It didn't really assure Steve since out of the three she was the smallest one. "You must leave."

The man only chuckled amused and ignored her to address Steve. "She doesn't play well with others, does she?" He shrugged as she hissed in anger. "You should try out a game on this mode. In the meantime maybe Matt can teach her to play with others?"

A figure appeared from the portal that Steve had exited earlier, and tackled Sheridan off her platform before any of them could react. They landed hard. Immediately the new guy tried to pin the girl down with his greater strength and size. However she was not going down without a fight. Sheridan landed a beautiful right hook to Matt's face and jammed a vicious knee strike into his ribs.

That blow winded him and she almost freed herself. Suddenly he head butted her and there was a large thud as their helmets slammed together. The blow stunned her and Matt quickly secured her in a pin.

_This is wrong. I won't allow it._

That was the thought that ran through Steve's mind and before he knew it he was at their side. With a roar Steve grabbed the other guy by his shoulders, yanking him off the girl and throwing him at the wall. Matt stumbled towards the wall, but managed to somewhat regained his footing. Controlling his ungainly stumble the attacker kicked off the wall he was about to crash into, and the momentum and lift allowed him to gain a vantage point on another platform nearby. Despite the strange appearance Steve could see that this Matt was around the same age as himself, and the lights flowing through his outfit were a dull grayish.

The whole landscape had moved, and Steve could no longer see where the caped guy was. From the corner of his eye by the girl's side, Matt's actions recaptured his attention. The other teen was holding out his right arm and the lights on his outfit started pulsing wildly. The lights started pulsing down his right arm to his hand where an orb appeared hovering. Matt clenched his hand into a fist and the other teen had a new shiny blade of light extending out from his clenched fist. They could hear the thing humming as he pointed it at the two.

Steve's jaw dropped opened. "Is that a fucking lightsaber?!" This fight had just gotten extremely unfair, and Steve admitted only to himself that he was a little jealous. He wanted a lightsaber too, but perhaps this wasn't exactly the best time to start whining… er requesting for one.

"Don't stare! Move!" Sheridan curtly ordered as she started dragging Steve after her.

When Steve regained his wits he began running on his own overtaking the girl and dragging her along. If he were to look back he would have noticed her surprised expression. They ran adjusting their course as the blocks and ground moved and shifted. He skidded to a stop as Matt, who was chasing them from above, dropped down his lightsaber swinging down a few inches from his face. The light was blinding and his ears roared with the buzz of the blade. The thing even made the sound effects of a lightsaber. Steve felt his arm rising up towards his shoulder before a smaller hand landed on it. Sheridan leapt up pushing down on Steve's shoulder to get her more lift. She easily cleared his head, and kicked out connecting solidly with Matt's jaw.

Damn, that was hella vicious! The blow sent the other staggering a few feet away groaning in pain, the first noise he made since he showed up. Steve released her wrist to catch the girl as she came back down. Moments later she flew out of his arms going one way and shoving Steve the other way as the Jedi-wannabe came back with a thrust at the space they were occupying. With both hands gripping the sword Matt drew his sword back sharply and managed to stun Steve with a left elbow jab.

He didn't press his advantage just stunning the teen so that he could attack the girl again. Matt charged with a relentless combo that Sheridan was barely dodging. The fight was being taken away from Steve. Steve chased after them to help the girl, but how he was going to accomplish that eluded him. The swordsman yelled out as he put all his strength into an overhead slice bearing down on the girl standing near edge of the platform. Steve's stomach dropped to his feet. He was too far away to do anything. Sheridan threw her forearms up the line markings flashed and the lightsaber crashed into some shield of light. She yelped as the force of the blow sent her backwards over the edge.

The place shifted blocking Matt from following after the girl. While he was trying to find a way around Steve repaid him for the jab as well as ignoring him. The surprise punch bounced Matt against the wall and he retaliate with a horizontal slice which Steve dodged by back flipping out of the way. Matt chucked his light blade at Steve in anger. The other teen awkwardly twisted himself out of the way. The blade continued on its path shattering into a shower of sparks as it hit the block. The projectile was only a distraction, however.

Now unarmed Matt grabbed the back of Steve's head and ran him face first into the wall. Steve's vision went white and blurred at the impact. Unfortunately Matt didn't stop with one hit, and gripping Steve's head tightly he slammed it several times into the wall. When he let go Steve slumped into the wall sliding down till the teen lay crumpled at Matt's feet. He summoned his blade again waiting a moment to see if his opponent will stay down. Seemingly satisfied he began to walk away. It would've probably been smart to stay down, but Steve's pride was taking multiple blows. Apparently Matt saw the girl as a bigger threat with the way he was going after her and only trying to stun Steve. Even though he was still dizzy Steve kicked out and by some miracle the blow hit the back of Matt's knee causing him to stumble.

From a newly formed gap Sheridan charged at Matt as he was turning back around to face Steve. A large rectangle of light hovered over both her forearms like shields, and she tried to bash one of them into the swordsman. He blocked it with the sword and then roughly pushed her back. She blocked his counterattack and held her palm flat as if she was going to deliver a knife strike. The end of her shield sharpened to a point as if mimicking her, and she thrust her arm forward. He dodged it; the point just grazed his ribs. They traded several fast paced blows for awhile both of them only scoring glancing blows.

In the meantime, Steve gingerly climbed to his feet fighting off the spell of vertigo that assaulted him when he gained his footing. Their battle sounded like it came straight out of Star Wars with the crashes and hums and buzzed of their weapons. He took several deep breaths and the world slowly stopped dancing about. Hopefully he didn't have a concussion, but his head did throb horribly. The battle edged closer to Steve and as she diverted one of Matt's sword swings to the side the teen introduced his foot to Matt's ass. The meeting only added to his forward momentum and Matt rolled forward as a block moved up and took him out of sight. No time to gloat though.

"Where is your system stationed?" The girl quickly asked between pants.

Even though it was impossible for Steve to know his way around he still found himself lifting up an arm and pointing off in a direction. The girl nodded and took off running where Steve indicated. A block obstructed his path and Steve took a small detour allowing the other teen to gain some distance. Steve followed and saw that she had stopped eying a gap that was too wide for most people to jump across, but he could see his portal on the other side. He was still some distance away when Matt's arm appeared from behind a corner grabbing her neck in a chokehold. With a strangled cry she was yanked out of Steve's sight.

"DAMNIT!"

Steve was really starting to hate this place. It blocked him off when he reached where she was standing. The whole place was conspiring against him. Listening to the sounds of their fight he began to climb up while following the sounds. On higher ground it was simple to find the two. They were really close to his portal now. Steve studied the lay of the land and got an idea. Steve's partner got in a lucky hit in and leapt back placing some space between them.

Steve dangled himself over the edge of a higher platform holding on with only one arm. "Jump!" He barked at the girl holding out his free hand.

She hesitated uncertainly before following his order. Steve grunted as her weight was added to his, but his arm handle the extra strain easily. To her shock the teen threw her across the gap towards his portal. Steve was aiming for the area in front of the portal but misjudged as she passed through the circle of orbs just barely managing to grab an orb and transport herself before she flew over the edge into the black space. Oh well no time for that because Matt had been following close behind as Steve knew he would.

Steve had greater control over his body in the air than the other teen. The gymnastic teen released his hold letting himself dropped onto the other airborne teen. Matt's momentum from his jump was greater than the momentum Steve generated from his short drop. When they collided Matt was still sailing forward or at least he was until Steve braced his feet against his chest and kicked off. Matt fell back to the other block and Steve made it to his portal. With a gloating laugh to his impromptu spring board he used his portal.

Steve was going to regret that laugh. Immediately when he appeared, the teen was not expecting to get hit with the tackling force of a pro football player. Well, he wasn't really sure what hit him, but that's what it felt like. The teen felt himself crashed into the podium thing, and heard the room forming around him.

"These new Players seem to be getting rowdier lately." Genesis lamented ruefully. Craning his neck Steve saw that he had the girl. Her unmoving body dangled in the air where one of the floating gloves held her by the back of her shirt.

"W-n't …get …a-ther" The girl's protest was weak and it was hard to make out her mumblings.

"Oh, awake are you?" Genesis seemed very surprised but not very troubled by it. "I'm afraid I'll have to get Mr. Knight settled first then I'll get to you."

Just then Matt appeared and Steve tensed warily. Genesis handed her to the other teen, and Steve didn't dare do anything when he held his saber up to her throat.

"Mr. Knight, don't be so troubled. This is a game and you should enjoy it. Ms. Sheridan is trying to protect one of the Players that broke the rules. She's been causing us a lot of trouble because she's been hiding her friend."

"Bullshit…" Her breathing was shallow but she still managed to get the word out.

Steve grinned at her remark. He did not trust this guy or his lackey. That was a lot of force to use on one girl who refused to out a friend, and she had his sympathy.

Genesis did not like the look on the teen's face. "Oh well, why don't you forget about this whole ugly ordeal while you play?"

At those words a giant disk appeared on the floor underneath Steve. The thing began spinning as he stood on it and Steve suddenly felt really sick. The world blurred and tilted sideways as the spinning picked up speed. Abruptly it stopped and Steve crashed to the ground.

For the second time that day Steve found that the floor he was laying on was not the same as the one he last remember standing on. He was lying on pavement, and there were voices murmuring around him.

"Kids these days partying like they're rock stars."

"Is he homeless, mommy? Is that why he's sleeping in the street?"

"Honey, don't stare!"

After being in a dark environment so long the bright sunlight was murdering his retinas. Picking himself up Steve noticed that he was on some overhead road. The majority of the people seemed to be ignoring him except for a few who offered him passing curious looks. Such were the charms of big cities. Steve didn't recognize the place at first. Large towering buildings reached up into the skies. Instead of the same harsh angles of rectangular giants reaching into the sky much of the city skies were decorated with spires and domes. There were many buildings that had water cascading down the sides in large waterfalls. The whole city seemed more advanced than he was used to.

Steve gasped as he caught the billboard sign on the building across from him. It was Jecht in the same picture that Tidus runs past on his way to the blitzball stadium. He didn't recognize the city because the picture of Zanarkand in his mind was usually when it was lit up in lights. Steve's mind stuttered before questions raced through his mind.

What the hell happened?! What happened to Genesis, Matt, and that Sheridan girl? This was seriously not his day. Then as if the universe was trying to remind the teen of self-fulfilling prophecies.

"You do not belong here." The flat disapproval was clear in the familiar childish voice.

The red head turned around and found himself confronted by the child faith, Bahamut, complete with a suspicious scowl further echoing his disapproval. Wow he really must be annoyed if he's actually expressing emotion. In the game the child just wore a stoic serious face the whole way through.

Steve could tell that he was about to get interrogated. Still hurting from the earlier beating, confused, in disbelief, and completely not ready to be grilled by a video game character, the teen felt himself snap under the pressure. The earlier hysteria he had suppressed came back with a vengeance.

"HOLY SHIT! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Steve screamed out and ran away from Bahamut. "THIS IS ALL JUST A DREAM!" The people stared after the crazy screaming teen as he sped away. "YOU'RE ALL JUST A DREAM! NONE OF THIS IS REAL!"

The fayth's mouth dropped open in shock. "He knows and he's revealing the true nature of this world to all the citizens!"

* * *

That's right, Bahamut, we are all on to you.


	3. The Fayth of Yevon

Wow 30 pages in and I haven't crashed and burn in crushing pile of flames yet. Actually there hasn't really been any feedback at all, and it makes me wonder if it's because my fic is too slow paced. Is slow paced a bad thing I wonder?

Disclaimer: Still not mine, still butchering it.  


* * *

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter three: The Fayth of Yevon

A group of young kids scattered and yelled loudly as Steve ran through their midst. Uncaring of the chaos that swept through the crowds behind him, Steve ran. Much like his wild sprint, he abandoned all rationality and control.

Nothing made sense. WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON! No matter how far he ran, he could not outrun his current situation. The faces that he ran by, they weren't real. Were they? It was a video game, but everything was strikingly real. How was he supposed to get home? Would he be able to get home? Was he stuck within the game? What would his family do when they can't find him? He felt his chest tighten at the thought. If he never returned would they think he was dead?

There was no need to pinch himself. Despite his earlier proclamations it was slowly beginning to sink in even if he was constantly denying it. This was reality. His throbbing headache from when Matt introduced his head to the wall had that base covered. The teen was no fool. Despite the fury from those concern mothers, violence in the video games was alright as long as they stayed in the video game. Though his green eyes were wild and wide he knew. This was a game, but the pain told him that this game had higher stakes. It was one thing to lob a grenade at a friend on Halo. The only consequence was a higher risk of said friend smacking you upside the head as you exercised your bragging rights.

Now there would be no game over screen if he were to make a mistake.

He dodged a middle aged man and nearly mowed down a little old lady, but he diverted his path up onto the railing and continued his senseless sprint. The people stared shocked and awed at the teen running recklessly mindless of the deadly drop on the other side. His body ran on automatic even as he suffered his mental breakdown. Steve's muscle memory corrected his balance as he full out ran on the small ledge. The ramp of another street running parallel to the ledge began rising up to merge the two streets, and Steve leapt off hitting the ground with a small grunt.

Several citizens that were walking along the street cried out in surprise as the teen dropped in among them. One even fell back in shock until he froze halfway through his fall. A startled glance around showed that everyone around him was frozen. Even the water that cascaded down the buildings had stopped flowing. Time was frozen.

"You cannot run." The child faith solemnly stated appearing behind Steve. "This is—"

"NOOOOO!!" The loud denial interrupted whatever Bahamut was about to say. "Still dreaming! I am not talking to dragon boy! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!" The red head once again bolted disregarding the notion that he couldn't outrun the fayth in a world of their creation.

It had been eons since the dragon fayth had been interrupted and ignored. Though he was only a child in appearance summoners always paid him the utmost reverence when they entered his chamber. It was such a novel experience that the boy didn't react right away. The ancient child just stood there musing over the fact that the teen had the nerve to call him dragon boy. Only Ifrit got away with calling him that, and only if he was annoyed with how depressed Bahamut's voice sounded all the time.

"Didn't you say that you were going to handle this problem?" A young girl around Bahamut's age suddenly appeared, a cloud of pyreflies clinging to her form. Her blonde pigtails tumbled past her shoulders with wisps of her bangs framing her petulant scowling face. "Why are you just standing there? We are going to have to insult you on a more regular basis if it's going to be this debilitating every time someone disrespects you."

"Mindy, I do not need your insults." The hooded boy's stoic mask was back in place as he turned to face the most black magically inclined of the Magus Sisters. "There is no need for me to run him down. It'll be for the best if I wait for him to calm down before I confront him again."

"You're just being lazy." She quickly accused. "Or maybe it is because his legs are much longer than yours? I've seen him run there is no way you could catch him unless you were cheating."

Bahamut did not answer the other ancient child.

* * *

Well that was certainly odd. The older man looked up from his saucer of sake at the sudden silence. It has been such a busy week of blitzball practices for his rambunctious charge that this was the first time in a while that they had a chance to get together over a meal.

The younger male had been furiously ranting over how his team was going to murder the Duggles in the match next week. Despite the fact elder quickly busied himself with the contents of his white jug in order to drown out the sounds of the loud ramblings, even he noticed how his charge never acknowledged what the match was honoring or how venomously he avoided saying the cup's title name out loud.

The sudden silence was a bit disconcerting after listening to the arrogant boasts during the whole meal. What met his sight when he glanced at his companion caused him to pull the sunglasses off his face revealing one brown eye with the other sealed shut by a scar running through it.

The young blitzer was frozen with a bite of steak halfway to his mouth. For a moment the red-clad man wondered if there was an attractive girl walking past behind him as they sat at the café. Taking a closer look with his remaining eye he noticed that the sugary drink that the teen favored was sloshing over the rim of his cup, except that it also was frozen in time. A surveying glance around reinforced that theory.

Something was happening. After living for ten years in the more peaceful Zanarkand something was actually happening. He stood up tensing as he slung his katana over his right shoulder. However after a few minutes of nothing happening the warrior relaxed from his stance. The whole city was frozen, and the legendary guardian was not about to senselessly comb the large the city for the cause. He slipped his sunglasses back onto his face. Whatever was going on, it was affecting only the citizens of this world.

He felt a brief flash of concern for the young man in front of him. The former warrior monk had promised his father to take care of him, and right now he wasn't sure what he could do for the young man. Was his charge even in danger?

The man's dark brows knitted together as he recognized at least one danger that his charge was in. Reaching over to his side of the table the older mentor picked up a weapon of a different sort. Armed with his new weapon he speared the danger and quickly vanquished it to the bowels of his stomach. Then the man borrowed the younger man's weapon and stabbed a few green foes before replacing it into his hand.

He reassessed the situation, and grunted satisfied. With that done the graying dark headed man reclaimed his chair and poured himself another drink.

* * *

Exhausted the sixteen year old slumped against the railing that lined the roads. The pain running through his abused limbs was finally forcing the teen to come back to reality. Usually Steve enjoyed getting a runner's high and forgetting his problems, but this problem was too big to simply push to the side.

Okay maybe it wasn't the best idea to let Bahamut know that he knew that this Zanarkand was a dream. On the other hand he already knew that Steve wasn't one of their dreams. Did they do this to Auron when he arrived in Dream Zanarkand? Did they think he was an unsent? It would probably be a bad idea to pretend to be an unsent. It was such a flimsy excuse.

"So you are the emergency that Bahamut requested the dream be frozen for."

Steve jumped startled and turned to see a very beautiful woman standing against the railing casting a curious gaze out of the corner of her blue eye. Her silk aqua skirt whispered against her long legs as she slowly and gracefully flowed into a more upright position to grace Steve with a fierce look. There was an elaborate bracer gracing her right wrist tied on with two braided cords, and there was another long braided cord hanging off her skirt with a metal feather like ornament coating a large ring. There was something really familiar about those accessories.

The teen felt himself flush when he noticed that her top barely covered anything, all it did was to accentuate her willowy form, but it was the style and color of her hair that made him take a second look. It was a dark grayish blue, and a dark blue headband pushed the hair out of her face broadcasting her refined and elegant features. The rest of her hair was sectioned off into long trails tamed and bounded by light tan cords, and on the ends of some of them hung a large metal ring with a spearhead tip that was bigger that her hand.

She looked dangerous. Honestly the woman was wearing freaking large weapons in her hair. WHO DOES THAT?! She had an extremely unique appearance that Steve was thrown off that he couldn't immediately recall who she was. Sure he had not played FFX in a long time but he should have been able to recall this woman. The woman perked an eyebrow as the teen continued his blatant staring trying to place her.

Wait a moment he was still in Dream Zanarkand and all the dreams were frozen in time. She was one of the fayth. Steve mentally hit himself over the head as his eyes flew back up to her hair. Just take the spearheads off the rings. The teen paled. He just ogled Shiva, the Ice Queen, and by the looks of things she was quickly losing her patience. The red head wasn't brave enough to wait out her reaction, and despite his exhaustion he turned tail and ran.

A dark tanned arm corded with thick muscles clotheslined the green eyed teen and he fell back choking. Shiva sighed as the new man sniggered at the teen on the ground. The newcomer was bare-chested showing the flames tattooed above his black pants across his abs where they obviously continued around to his back. Like Shiva he also carried weapons, but his were these monstrous metal gloved claws on his hands. There was no way for Steve not to recognize the man in front of him as half a demonic mask dangled over his chest. The long curving horns of the mask protruded over his left shoulder almost looking like blade-like wings.

"Such excessive force should be avoided, Ifrit"

The man's answering grin was a touch bit feral. "But he's a jumpy one." The sun picked out blonde highlights in the man's tawny hair.

"You are going to gore someone someday."

"Erm, I sort of already did, but its okay Yojimbo was completely fine after a minute or two. It's not like we have real bodies. Besides you're one to talk! You have more pointy objects than I do!"

The ice fayth just regarded him with a stern look which Ifrit expertly ignored. The whole moment just seemed surreal as the two fayth ignored Steve to argue with one another. The teen studied the two as Ifrit began boasting that despite Shiva having more weapons, he was the more powerful of the two. Why did they look like this? In the game all the other fayth except Bahamut were reused NPC models. Wasn't Ifrit supposed to be a crusader and Shiva a priestess? Looking at the two dangerous looking individuals in front of him it wasn't hard to imagine them spawning the powerful aeons they are known for.

"Would you stop your whining! You are too old to be throwing tantrums like a child." Shiva's cutting remark brought Steve's attention back to the matter at hand. "I thought after the first 200 years you would stop challenging everyone to these pointless battles. I don't care who you can out-testosterone."

"That's because you would lose."

"Of course I would lose! I'm a woman who's obviously not driven by high levels of testosterone to foolishly pick my-muscles-are-bigger-than-yours fights!"

"Now that's just sexist… Besides Ixion and I only did that once!"

"Yes, and you two idiots have the nerve to blame it on alcohol. We can't even get drunk!"

"They do this all the time." A childish voice lamented exasperated. Steve did not have the energy anymore to freak out when he found Bahamut standing next to him. What was it with these fayth appearing besides him out of nowhere? Maybe since they gave up their bodies they viewed walking as overrated.

The child fayth was watching as Shiva fended Ifrit off with a kick that Steve recognized her aeon form executing in the game. Ifrit dug his clawed weapon into the bridge to slow the momentum of the hit. The Lord of Flame then crouched down in a fighting stance that was very reminiscent of his aeon form, and slammed his claws onto the road creating this horrible clashing noise.

"It's getting harder to remember the details of these roads." The monotone remark caught the other two's attention and the oncoming battle was nipped in the bud. Ifrit straighten up sending a frown at Bahamut as Shiva crossed her arms and refused to acknowledge that she was being scolded by a child.

Steve glanced between the three fayth and felt a bit overwhelmed. It was Final Fantasy three favorite summons. Except for Cid, Bahamut, Ifrit, and Shiva were the most recurring characters of the Final Fantasy series. Though it was a bit disappointing that it was only the fayth representing them and not their recognizable summon forms. Still these three have been in every game from 3 to 11, and they were coming back in 13. Depression engulfed the teen; he stood no chance against the three.

"So troublesome" The woman turned away from the group, "from the way you were carrying on I had thought that it was a real threat. It appears that I am not needed here." Pyreflies began to leak from her body and lazily float about. "Bahamut, I trust your judgment far more than that hothead in dealing with this problem." The blue haired woman walked off, fading with every step that she took until she disappeared altogether.

"Behemoth shit, she just doesn't want to admit that she was curious over what was happening in here." The fire fayth commented with a roll of his golden eyes. He glanced at Steve for a moment sizing him up. Apparently he didn't see much of a threat because a moment later he snorted dismissingly. "Whatever. Bahamut, you can take care of this I'm not one for holding back." The man slipped the mask on covering the left side of his face baring his teeth in a grin that looked more like a snarl. The muscular man slapped Steve on the back with a force that knocked the wind out of him as he walked past. "Later problem boy." Ifrit jumped off the road and disappearing in a burst of pyreflies once he cleared the road.

Once as Steve got his breath back he rasped out, "Did they just bail on you?"

The smaller boy just gave him a look. Steve couldn't tell what kind of look because his hood threw shadows over his eyes, but the boy's lips were pressed tightly in a thin line. An awkward moment of silence descended and the teen felt it was getting creepy how the fayth kid was just staring at him. Why did it feel like that awkward moment a few minutes after the parents leave the babysitter with their child, and the two would just stare at each other like 'Now what'?

Bahamut broke the silence first. "Not running?" The teen's face twitched. Running wasn't exactly working for him. "I see. What are you?

"Lost?" Steve offered and the answering frown he received was not amused. A little more desperate he tried again. "¿Dónde está el cuarto de baño?" Wait what did he just say? It was like the first phrase he could remember from his Spanish class. Bahamut who had never heard Spanish before just stared at the teen who also looked confused at what was coming out of his mouth.

The teen had to admit the look on Bahamut's face was priceless. Maybe he could distract the fayth if he confused him with more Spanish. If in doubt just start babbling in another language and while the person goes to look for another person who speaks that language that is when you make your getaway. "Yo quiero Taco Bell. Usted es un mono verde. Las escalas comieron mis zapatos. Bien est sur la colline..."

Bahamut warily eyed the possibly insane red head. That didn't sound like the Al Bhed language. He had been around for a thousand years and never had he heard the babble that the teen was indulging in. Perhaps it would be merciful to just put the teen down.

Steve stopped making up words when pyreflies began swirling around the fayth. Before his eyes the boy began transforming. The hood rippled and took on a shape mimicking the horns and ridges of his aeon form. The boy curled in on himself and suddenly the strange halo design on the back of his hoodie popped off his back becoming real and hovered behind his back. His forearms and wrists became covered in black scales. Gone were his small child hands having been replaced with wickedly devastating looking gold talons. Steve was almost knocked off his feet as the wings flapped once into existence. The tail whipped about as Bahamut readjusted his balance from gaining his extra limbs.

It was almost like Steve's eyebrows were trying to hide themselves in his hairline. The fayth did not transform all the way, looking half boy half dragon. Except if he were to cross his arms like the stance in his aeon form he would probably resemble a punk kid more than the almighty King of Dragons.

He didn't indulge in a pose though and instead with a flap of his wings he rushed at Steve. CRAP! He was a lot faster in this form than he was in complete aeon form. Bahamut barreled straight into his chest and Steve got the wind knocked out of him for the second time by a fayth. The force sent the teen skidding across the road bouncing like a stone being skipped on water, but before he got too far the dragon's tail shot out and wrapped around his ankle. With a sickening lurch his flight was arrested, and a flick sent him slamming into the ground. Even through his blurring vision Steve saw the sharp talons aiming straight at his head. Despite how the move made him nauseous he rolled himself out of the way. He felt the ground shake and cracked as the strength of the fayth's blow caused the ground to crater.

Bahamut didn't bother with trying to pull his arm out of the street. Wasn't he chiding the other two about having to repair these streets with their memories just a few moments ago? Instead the dragon child lashed out with his other arm. With the tail still grasping his ankle Steve couldn't roll any further, and with a sharp exhale he folded his body in half just ducking underneath the strike. Now inside his opponent's guard the teen tackled Bahamut. Even if he added to his body mass with the extra appendages the boy was still smaller than Steve was. At least he wasn't the same size as his normal dragon form.

They crashed onto the ground the metal halo thing created sparks as it grinded against the ground. In the confusion Bahamut lost the grip on Steve's ankle as the teen tumbled off the fayth and rolled to a stop a few yards away. The wings were a lot stronger than they looked because even though they looked painfully pinned underneath his body, Bahamut sharply unfurled them against the ground to propel himself up. While in midair he twisted causing his tail to whip out, but Steve bent backwards at the waist showing off the hard-earned flexibility that he honed in his mother's gym. Steve grabbed onto the tail as Bahamut yanked it back pulling a little something extra with it. The red head shoulder rammed the smaller boy off his feet, and immediately regretted it both as it wasn't exactly the best way to gain the fayth's trust and because of the pain the maneuver caused him.

From his downed position Bahamut dug his talons into the road, then the large gold metal halo thing started to spin and the boy opened his mouth as light began gathering there.

OH SHIT! WAS THAT MEGA FLARE?! Steve was about to take his chances with leaping off the road despite the drop. There was no way he could survive that, might as well kiss his butt goodbye. The whole road and a good portion of the city that lied in the direction was most likely going to get destroyed by the attack. The same thought probably occurred to the fayth as he suddenly stopped his attack with a preoccupied shake of his head.

"Ifrit must be rubbing off on me… Shiva would probably let me have it if I destroy the place after my earlier comment."

Steve couldn't resist the urge to face palm. Bahamut was all like, 'Oops, better not destroy the dream city or else Shiva will spank me.'(A/N: Vague shout out to _Tales of Their Childhood_ story. Lol I couldn't resist) What happened to the creepy, cryptic, mystical, legendary, spirit kid known in the game? Wasn't he the representative of the fayth as well as Tidus' guide? Was this what he was like when he wasn't giving you vague messages? This unexpected side distracted Steve because the next thing he knew was that he was on fire. The bastard casted a Firaga spell at him!

"AHH! Ow ow owww! Stop, drop, and roll. Stop, drop, and roll." Following his own shouted instructions the teen did just that. When the fire was out a slightly singed Steve allowed himself to collapse bonelessly to the ground, his breaths coming in short puffs. He never had been set on fire before, and deliberately too. The teen gagged on the smell of his own burnt flesh. He couldn't tell the extent of the damage, but it ached all over. Bahamut's visage filled Steve's blurry view as he looked down on his opponent.

"I do not know how you entered this place. You are no dream of ours, nor are you of the resentful ones clinging to this world." Despite his smaller form the fayth grabbed a handful of what was left of the ruins of Steve's shirt and lifted the teen to his face ignoring his cries of pain. "All I know is that I shall be the one to send you from this world."

Steve's breath got caught in his throat as the horrid realization crept through his numb brain. Bahamut was going to kill him. Just like the hundreds of fiends that he so casually destroys when a summoner calls him. He was going to die just for being forced into this game. Was this what Genesis wanted? Is this why the girl was so horrified to find Steve wandering around in that strange world? Because she knew this was going to happen. He was going to die before figuring anything out. He couldn't let it all end like this.

"N-no…" The defiant word was as weak as his attempts to pry Bahamut's grip off of him. "no…"

"What?" The fayth's mouth went dry as he felt the build up of a very familiar power. He turned away from the teen as he tried to find the source, and got blindsided by a blow of a winged appendage not his own. The attack knocked him away from Steve. The high pitched noise of a bird of prey had him trying to shield his ears through his hood.

Steve's meeting with the ground was halted as warmth suffused through his body. It was so hazy and he felt like he was floating. It made him sleepy, and yet even when he felt that his eyes were close the teen found that he could still see Bahamut staring at him speechless. That's funny. Did he say something in Spanish again? He couldn't remember. The feathers brushing against his cheek was distracting him.

Steve was draped over the back of some creature that caught him after Bahamut dropped him. A cloud of pyreflies swarmed the teen's rescuer obscuring what it was. It was like it was only half formed tethering between incorporeal and corporeal, and yet it had no trouble supporting the teen. From what the dragon fayth could see the thing was around Ifrit's size excluding the wings, and it stood on four legs. Unable to stay much longer the creature reared back onto it hind legs sliding the teen to feet where he swayed a little unsteadily. The pyreflies it was composed of were drawn to Steve's right hand where it started to form a large elaborate sword. The creature vanished into weapon, and the teen's eyelids drooped half closed almost as soon as he opened them.

He may have gotten a weapon now, but Bahamut could see that the red head was in no condition to begin round two. From where he barely stood on his feet, it was visible to all that the teen was on his last leg. Steve managed two steps forward before he crumpled to a heap on the ground. The sword disappeared as the teen slipped into unconsciousness.

"I know you two are watching." Bahamut tilted his head up to address the sky. "Get down here we need to have a meeting."

Shiva and Ifrit reappeared their faces deathly serious. All earlier gaiety was gone. They formed a circle around the knocked out teen. Ifrit bent down and turned the teen over so that he wasn't eating pavement.

"You saw what occurred?" Bahamut asked as he transformed back into his normal appearance. Ifrit grunted with a puzzled frown studying the mystery before them, and Shiva merely nodded.

"It is not the same." The golden eyed man noted. "We would have immediately noticed."

"This needs looking into. We should not do anything impulsive." A pointed look was aimed at Ifrit.

"There's not much we can do. We should keep an eye on him."

"I agree." Shiva and Ifrit echoed each other.

"I'll place him somewhere I can watch him."

"Watch him die you mean." Shiva muttered darkly crossing her arms across her chest. "Bahamut, you practically killed this young man!"

"I thought he was a threat… are you familiar with the language he was speaking?"

"…"

"We won't solve anything if you let him die here."

"I'll get Cindy to heal him."

"Oh, before you go… you're redreaming this area."

* * *

"Ugh! EW!" All the other patrons of the café turned and watched as the star player of the Zanarkand Abes spat out a mouthful of salad. The blonde made faces at the green mess on the table, and turned a bewildered look at his fork.

"Tidus, vegetables are good for you. Don't waste them." To the blonde's surprise his companion had already finished his meal.

The young blitzball player stared suspicious at the red-clad man. "I don't know how, but I have a feeling this is your fault, Auron."

"Did you see me do anything?"

"No… not exactly."

"If you did not see what happened right under your nose then you obviously need more training."

"Gimme a break, man!"

"Hmph, you get no breaks in life."

* * *

That's right, Tidus, Auron is so badass that he could switch the food on your folk without you noticing. Forget the samurai skills Auron also has ninja skills.

Oh if you're wondering why I gave the other fayth makeovers it's because I didn't really feel like the NPC models they used really fit. Bahamut was the only one who got design. Plus I was looking at the fayth statues and you can see that it had a human form. I thought the Valefor and Ixion ones looked cool. So the other fayth in this fic are going to resemble their fayth statues.

Translation:  
Donde esta el cuarto de bano?  
Where is the bathroom?

Yo quiero Taco Bell.  
I want Taco Bell.

Usted es un mono verde.  
You all are a green monkey.

Las escalas comieron mis zapatos.  
The ladders ate my shoes.

Bien est sur la colline. (French)  
The well is over the hill

PREVIEW:  
Chapter four: The City that Never Sleeps

Another girlish giggle broke their conversation, and Tidus' crowd pleasing smile was snapped back on as the groupies descended. Where the Hell did they keep coming from?! Geeze the entire city was like his personal fan club. It had been like this all morning, and Steve was about to smack his head into something. Tidus barely blinked an eye when one of the girls pulled down her shirt exposing cleavage and shoved it in the blonde's face for him to sign. The young blitzball player must've gotten used to it over his career, and it would probably explain the lack of a reaction when he met Lulu.

The red head was pulled out of his thoughts when Tidus threw an arm over his shoulders and dragged him into the circle. "Hey girls have you met my buddy here? His name is Steve." Said teen's face twitched. The hell was Tidus playing at. These brainless groupies were annoying. He better not be doing what he thought he was going to do.


	4. The City that Never Sleeps

A/N: Yeah CH 4 is done at last! I knew where I wanted this chapter to end, but writing it out was another thing all together. Geeze I don't know how this thing ended up being around 19 pages long. I thought about splitting the chapter, but I wanted the chapter to end at a certain point. So meh… enjoy the long chapter.

My sister and I are having such a creativity surge. 26 pages in this week alone, yo! She claims we're sharing creative juices. The hair color I was thinking about for my other character ended up on one of the pictures she was drawing. Which was weird btw.

You definitely want to visit my profile later for a couple of links regarding this chapter. Got a working outline up until the Calm Lands. I just need to work on filling in the blanks between that and the ending.

Anyone have any suggestions for self inserts? I really wanna read some good ones. Plus I wanna know how off the wall mine is.

Disclaimer: I'm going to the corner to be emo over the lack of ownership.

* * *

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter four: The City that Never Sleeps

It was quickly becoming a habit of finding himself in strange places. It was like every time he closed his eyes the world just decides to abandon him just for another to take its place. Considering that the last two worlds had been video game based made him wonder if video games were indeed rotting his brains. He didn't remember how he got there. It wasn't like he woke up. He just became aware that he was just standing there. It was like he had started to daydream and snapped back to reality.

It was weird. What was he doing standing in the middle of a desert highway with a leash and dog collar? It wasn't hot despite what his surroundings was suggesting, but it sure was dusty. Steve examined the objects he held wondering how he had acquired them. The collar was already looped shut and attached to the leash. There appeared to be something already written on the name tag.

_To where you are needed_

"Huh? That's a funny name for a dog… Must be interesting calling for the dog."

To his surprise the handle to the leash tightened around his hand ensnaring it, while the dog collar… IT FREAKING **JUMPED** OUT OF HIS HAND AND **FLOATED** ABOUT AT CHEST HEIGHT. OH GOD IT WAS POSSESSED!

The top of the collar turned to face him. It was like there was an invisible dog… if so that was one big dog. The collar dipped to the side curiously. Was it studying him? Sort of hard to tell when there was nothing there.

The invisible thing turned abruptly as something caught its attention. Before Steve could pull off the leash, it took off running dragging the red headed teen stumbling after it. It was not fair. Something with no muscles had no business being that strong.

"SIT! HEEL! ROLL OVER! HEY, LOOK A MAILMAN!" The creature ignored his commands and just continued on. The sound of a loud truck horn suddenly rented the air. In the far distance Steve could see a big truck careening towards them. Trying to pull or redirect the creature off the road proved useless. The only thing it accomplished was the loss of his footing. Dragging the teen across the road showed no difference in the creature's running speed as it continued towards the oncoming vehicle. There was nothing that he could do. Invisodog (or was it _To where you are needed?)_ was determined to make them both roadkill.

He screwed his eyes shut just before impact. There was a strange sense of vertigo, but other than that nothing happened. Green eyes opened to see the arms that he had thrown in front of his face. Lowering them he noticed that he was no longer holding the leash, and that he was in a dark room.

Suddenly he choked as something tied around his neck was tugged sharply. Belatedly he realized that he was now wearing the collar, and whoever was on the other end was pulling him forward into the darkness. He saw white and blue before he crashed into something. His vision was blinded by a blue light, and he felt an arm reach up and wrap itself gently around his neck and threaded its fingers into his hair as it pulled his head down to rest in the nook of its neck. The other arm went around his waist gripping the fabric of his shirt. The arms pulled him closer to the owner's body. The intimacy of the position made him feel a little awkward.

"You are too weak." The figure finally spoke and Steve's head jerked up, and he pushed the person away so that he could look at them. He knew that voice. It was the girl from that place within the game console. The strange white mask serving as her face stared blankly at him. "It will not be so easy." She was holding onto the handle of the leash.

"What are you talking about? What will not be easy?"

"How sad… were you expecting me to proclaimed you as the prophesized chosen hero? That the reason someone went out of their way to send you the console was so that you could save them?" Her cutting remarks were spoken with a mockingly soothing tone.

Her words had Steve recoiling away from her, but she still held the leash and cruelly tugged him back. For some reason his body felt paralyzed as the girl embraced him with patronizing lovingness.

"You thought that you could get to the bottom of this without running into any danger? That you could miraculous save the day? I do think someone plays too many RPGs."

"Who are you people?"

"You are not posing your question to the right person. The last time you saw me I had a sword to my throat. For all you know I could be dead. Maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination? Maybe the next American Idol?" She ignored the incredulous look Steve shot at her. A vacant smile smile spread across her face as she graced him with a harsh laugh. "Of course you did just get your ass kicked by a seven year old looking boy. A boy that barely reaches your waist. Are you sure he didn't finish you off? You could be the one that is dead."

The girl was ignoring his question, instead just talking in circles mocking him. Getting angry he shoved her away. She didn't show much of a reaction except to tilt her head to the side and offer him an enigmatic smile.

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying that we're dead?" He frowned at her. "Okay whoever stole reality and common sense I would really like them back."

She snorted at him. "Perhaps you should ask me that when you aren't questioning the reality of the world. I will probably be able to answer it then. Unless of course I'm really dead, but of course there is no time for us to be discussing that."

"Make up your mind. Didn't you just tell me that you're not the right person to be asking?"

"Listen…"

"… _maybe he's a blitzball player? Not many people could survive that long in the water like that." _The faint words sounded a bit muffled like they were from somewhere far away.

"Is that Tidus?" The girl hushed him with a finger to his lips.

"_Hmph. You don't have to be a blitzball player to be in the water. Just because you pulled him out of the water like that does not mean anything."_

"I guess that answers the question about your own mortality." The strange girl stepped away from Steve dropping the leash. "Maybe the next time we meet I'll be real."

"_Hey, look he's coming around!"_

* * *

Surprisingly he woke up without pain. His head had a strange stuffiness to it. Opening his eyes provided him with a blurry view of the world. A few minutes later it provided him with something else.

"Personal space now before I start questioning your sexuality." He croaked and a certain blonde blitzball whiz kid leapt away like he was burnt. Auron who was standing further away in the room shook his head exasperatedly.

He threw an arm over his eyes ignoring the video game characters watching him for a moment to try to compose himself. Was that a dream? Was she right and he was too weak and helpless to affect what was happening? Or was it only the guilt eating him? Even if it was suspicious he freely walked into this, and the girl was obviously trying to save him. Instead she was captured and who knows if she was alive.

"Here!" Steve's arm was dragged off his face and was greeted by a glass of water that was pushed onto him. Surprised he took it and without much thought drank it. The cool water soothed his sore throat. Oh that was why he was croaking earlier.

"Dryhg oui." Both teens looked confused at the words and Auron turned sharply in their direction. Did he just speak in Al Bhed? This needed looking into, but seeing that Tidus and Auron were about to start asking questions that he had no answers to, he quickly tried again. "Thank you."

"Uh, you're welcome I guess."

Steve quickly pushed the conversation along trying to distract them. "Who are you? How did I get here?"

Auron walked closer to the bed and gave him a piercing look over the top of his sunglasses. "You don't remember?"

It would probably be best to go with as much of the truth as possible. "I remember being about to die." His eyes widen. "That's right, but something happened…" Steve's eyebrows furrowed. What exactly happened? There was something about feathers.

"I see." The former guardian's face was closed off and abruptly he left the room.

"Sheesh. Don't mind him. Auron is always like that." Tidus made a face at the door before turning back to Steve. "We thought you were dead floating in the water like that."

"Floating in the water?" Steve was nowhere near the water when he fell unconscious.

"Yeah. Found you in the water around my boathouse. I thought you were a blitzball player since it seemed like you had no problem holding your breath even though you were unconscious."

Steve was getting more confused as the conversation went on. Since when was he able to speak Al Bhed and hold his breath like a blitzball player? "You thought I was… a blitzball player?" If Auron was in the room he might've thought that the young teen was suffering from Sin's Toxin.

The older teen recoiled from Steve like he punched him in the gut. "You don't know what blitzball is?!" Of course Steve knew what blitzball was, but it was only a fictional sport. "Oh man where have you been living all this time?! You're looking at the star player of the Zanarkand Abes! I'll tell you everything you need to know!"

Steve placed a blank mask of confusion on his face. If he thought that watching Tidus arrogantly introduce himself to a bunch of people who didn't give a fuck was embarrassing, it was nothing compared to seeing it in real life. What the hell was he waiting for? Applause? Mr. Star Player seemed surprised at the lack of a reaction. He better get use to it. He'll be getting a lot of it when he goes to Spira.

"Oh wow you really don't know anything." Tidus rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, you know how about I help you out. You can stay here for a while until we figure out what happened to you."

"Seriously?" That was too easy compared to the ordeal he went through earlier or was Tidus always that trusting and naïve? "Not that I'm complaining, but why are you helping me out? I thought all city people were jerks."

"It's the right thing to do. You don't need a reason to help people." Did he just quote Zidane and himself?

The blonde picked up a pile of clothes and clucked them at Steve. "Here's your clothes. They should be dry by now. You still look a little out of it so take it easy." Glancing at the clock he rolled his eyes. "I have to get to practice." Tidus ran out the door only to pop his head back in a moment later. "What did you say your name was?"

Steve face palmed. "It's Steve."

"Gotcha! See you later Steve." The blitzer was gone and distantly Steve heard another door in the distance slam shut as Tidus finally left the house.

"Hmm? He forgot to introduce himself." The red head mused aloud. That was kind of funny. FFX was the first game with voice actors, and players were able to name Tidus. Therefore in the game he was never referred by name. Tidus never did actually tell anyone his name in the game. Strange that a game quirk translated over, maybe it was now a habit that he forgot to tell others his name. Better make a note not to call Tidus by name until the blonde gets a chance to tell him his name.

Steve curiously investigated the clothes that Tidus threw at him when he noticed that all he was wearing was his boxers. Picking up the clothes he couldn't help but notice that they weren't exactly the same ones he put on last. The last time he checked he had been wearing a simple plain green tee and a pair of gray sweat pants before this whole thing.

"When did my clothes get all Square-Enixified?"

"An apology for burning your other outfit." Bahamut explained as he walked into the room through the walls.

"OH CRAP!" Steve jerked hitting the headboard before falling off the small bed. Upon hitting the floor he scrambled backwards until the wall blocked any further movement.

Like he was dealing with a frightened animal Bahamut raised his hands unthreatening and took a step back. That action alone calmed Steve down a little. He still glared suspiciously at the hooded boy. At least it looked like he wasn't about to get attacked at the moment.

"As I mentioned before it's an apology. I should not have been so hasty to eliminate you. It was a mistake. Perhaps we can begin anew? It is obvious that you are lost and in need of help, since you do not belong here. If you tell us how you got here we might be able to help you."

Steve gaped at the fayth. Well he was certainly singing a different tune since the last time. Just what happened before he passed out that caused this new development.

"I'm not sure how I got here." Steve offered honestly still warily watching Bahamut. "I just know that I don't belong here. Wait were there three others who entered this place? I remember that there was a man and a guy and girl around my age before I ended up here. Are they here too?"

Bahamut looked a little startled at the news. "There were others? As far as I know you were the only one. We would have noticed if the others had entered with you."

"I think the man had something to do with me being here. He's the one who attack me and the girl."

"Truly? This man might be a threat."

"Uh, Bahamut, did something happen before I passed out?"

The boy gave him an enigmatic look. "Shiva was right. You are not aware of the powers that you can command. Perhaps the stress of the situation caused you to manifest it last time."

"Huh? Powers?"

"Do not worry about it. We suspect we know what it is, but we are unsure. It is not the same. We will look into it and tell you when we have figured it out. Now why don't you put on your gift before you get sick sitting there in your underclothes."

"Uh sure…" Steve didn't move right away as he stared at the fayth standing opposite of him.

"Is there a problem?"

"Aren't you going to give me a little privacy, or are you going to stand there and watch me get dressed?" Bahamut already acted creepy enough in his behavior, and now he basically admitted to creating clothes for him which required the fayth to know the teen's size. There was something unnerving about the way he stood there so serious watching him.

"You know this world is a dream. There is no point in leaving the room. I'll see it regardless of where I am. We are the ones who created this world."

"Is it possible to be a little perv when you haven't gone through puberty?" Steve drawled. The thought that the little boy was essentially peeping on all the dreams was a bit disturbing. Tidus grew and aged even if he was only a dream. Didn't that mean that he was made the same way normal people were? Ugh does that mean Bahamut basically has his own free porn via the dream Zanarkand. That was a disturbing thought. He needed to get one of those memory things from Men in Black and erase that last thought.

Bahamut sighed and shook his head unaware of the teen's thoughts. "If it makes you feel better than I'll leave you be." The boy left the same way he came in, through the walls.

Steve edged to the pile of clothes casting a suspicious look to the walls. Talk about the phrase, _The walls have ears_. These walls had eyes and the ability to freeze time and morph into large creatures of unimaginable powers.

Feeling exposed Steve quickly pulled on the gray pants and the black turtle neck with its three-fourths sleeves before pausing to regard the more unique accessories of his new outfit. There was some belt ensemble with a small brown pouch attached. Opening the pouch he found that it was stocked with several bottles and vials. Looking closer he saw that they were some potions, phonenix downs, eye drops, and others things. Bahamut must have really felt bad. He hella hooked him up with the items.

Picking up the next item brought a bit of surprise. He had thought it was a green trench coat, but as he held it up revealed that it wasn't. It was some type of coat the front had a zipper down the front that ended near the middle of the chest, but despite that the front still went down a little past where his ribcage would end. The back of it was like a split cloak with both of the ends tapering off to a point. The coat also had a hood attached. Strange thing was that it had a metal like armored plates on it. Pulling it taunt so that he could get a better look he saw that it kind of look like an elaborate helm. Square-Enixifed indeed. With a shrug he pulled it on.

All that was left were two gloves; two **completely different** gloves. Steve's eye twitched. He forgot about Spira's asymmetrical fashion sense. The right glove was a simple black fingerless glove with a white trim, and the other was some type of metal gauntlet that went up to his elbow. The right glove was simple to slip on, but he had a bit of difficult strapping on the other. (A/N: There's a link on my profile if you want to see the sketch of the outfit.)

He didn't find shoes in the pile, but then again it would've hurt if Tidus chucked the shoes at him. It wouldn't do to endanger the injured by beaning them with shoes. Eyeing the more armored aspects of his new outfit it was probably a good thing he didn't.

The red head left the room and explored the rest of his host's house, and found a pair of black boots his size with green straps in the coat closet. Upon further exploration he discovered that Auron did not live with Tidus. In fact the grumpy guardian had also left the house long ago. Still Steve felt like a little kid gleefully pressing buttons on all the advanced machines. Tidus had a computer with a cool holographic screen. Eventually he found the remote to the TV which he quickly flipped on. On the screen there were interviewing members of the Duggles about their upcoming match with the Abes.

"_So are you guys feeling nervous about the upcoming match? Everyone is rooting for Jecht's son to bring the cup home to his team. They think it'll make his father proud."_

"_We know that it stacked against us, but if he's truly Jecht's blood then we won't let this be easy for him. Don't underestimate the Duggles! We─"_

Steve shut off the TV and collapse onto Tidus' couch. Talk about living in his father's shadow. They never did mentioned Tidus by name. He was only Jecht's son to these people. Was that why he never said his name? Because he knew people wouldn't use it. That was just wrong. Even if it was only him Steve decided to call Tidus by name without the shadow of his father in the way.

Until then the teen had to find something to occupy himself with.

* * *

How the hell did he get into this situation? It was the next day and Steve felt awkward standing there in his borrowed uniform before the rest of the assembled Zanarkand Abes. They all looked bright under the sun in their bright yellow uniforms. At least it was easy to pick out their teammates during a match. Damnit the least they could have done was object because the game was so close, but no they let their precious little star player have his way.

"Tidus," The star player turned to him with a bright grin. Who knew that treating the blonde like a person would make him his new best friend. "I don't think this is such a good idea."

"No way." The blonde waved off his concern. "I think you have some talent. Besides if we could incorporate your moves in the water they would make some great blitzball moves. Look I'm not asking you to join the team. Just help me come up with some new moves. It'll surprise the audience during the next match."

"I've never played blitzball in my life!"

"Oh you will be fine." The older teen shoved Steve into the sphere of water. The red head tried to exit the pool, but Tidus had dived in and tackled him away from the edge and further into the center of the sphere.

It was weird Steve wasn't having any problems holding his breath. Even after swimming around for five minutes didn't affect him. He had no idea how but he tried to enjoy it as he dodged Tidus' tackle with an impressive maneuver. The blonde mimed that he wanted to see it again and charge at Steve again.

Maybe Steve should have sat on that couch vegetating yesterday instead of practicing his tumbling. He thought back to yesterday.

"_Whoa!" Tidus gaped and ran up the plank leading to his house and towards the red head as he stuck his landing. "Those were some awesome moves!"_

"_Huh?" Steve looked startled to see that Tidus was back from practice. "Oh, you mean the Whip Back layout?_ (A/N: Link on profile again.)_ I was just testing to see how stiff and sore I was after what I went through."_

"_A what layout?"_

"_That's what the move is called. Those series of backflips keeping your body completely straight. It's a lot more difficult than it looks because you don't use your arms."_

"_Where did you learn how to do that?"_

"_Oh my mom is teaches tumbling. I've basically been doing this since I could walk."_

"_You don't say." Steve did not like the look on Tidus' face._

* * *

"It's a lot harder doing it in the water." Practice was over and the two teens were walking through the city. Steve had surprisingly enjoyed himself. "I've always preferred flying through the air. You know you're pretty good at flips too. I didn't know you could get that much air."

"Well, water offers more resistance. After training in the water I find that it is easier doing it on land."

"That's true maybe I should try this underwater training more often."

Tidus laughed. "Does that mean you wanna crash our practice tomorrow? I think the team seemed impressed. Maybe after the cup you can become a part of the team? Unless you go back to wherever you came from."

"I dunno about the team thing, but maybe I'll take you up with crashing practice. By the way what happened to that man, Auron?"

"Auron? He's just a guy I know. He teaches me some stuff from time to time."

"Really? Like what?"

"It sounds really weird, but Auron knows how to use a sword. Weird huh? I'm not sure why he specializes in such an ancient weapon, but whatever floats his boat. He started teaching me around ten years ago. Said that it would probably help with the stress and anger I was dealing with at the time."

Even if Tidus said he hated his father it was not hard to see that he cared for the man. Steve saw all Jecht's old trophies in the house. Tidus claimed that the walls would look empty without them, and that he got use to them being there.

"So does Auron teach─"

Another girlish giggle broke their conversation, and Tidus' crowd pleasing smile was snapped back on as the groupies descended. Where the Hell did they keep coming from?! Geeze the entire city was like his personal fan club. It had been like this all morning, and Steve was about to smack his head into something. Tidus barely blinked an eye when one of the girls pulled down her shirt exposing cleavage and shoved it in the blonde's face for him to sign. The young blitzball player must've gotten used to it over his career, and it would probably explain the lack of a reaction when he met Lulu.

The red head was pulled out of his thoughts when Tidus threw an arm over his shoulders and dragged him into the circle. "Hey girls have you met my buddy here? His name is Steve."

Said teen's face twitched. The hell was Tidus playing at. These brainless groupies were annoying. He better not be doing what he thought he was going to do. Steve was not going to be playing wingman. Tidus really needed to stop playing with these sluts and meet Yuna already. The girls smiled appreciative at him, and Steve could see that they were sending some type of messages to one another with looks alone.

"You guys just came from practice right? Wanna grab a bite to eat? You gotta keep up your strength for the game."

Suddenly Steve found a girl on each arm, and Tidus seemed to be in the same boat. The red head thought he heard Tidus murmuring under his breath of Auron not being there when he's needed.

These girls were not taking no for an answer as they began to drag them to some great place they know. Tidus seemed to be resigned to it as he went about the task of entertaining the girls on how he was going to win the match next week. Man, Tidus sounded like an arrogant son of a bitch.

This was not a part of the game. What was this? One of those dating simulation games?

He sighed, "I really could use a walkthrough."

The girls looked at him confused. "Is that some type of drink?"

The other one nudged him and gave him a look from beneath her lashes. "Aren't you underaged? Perhaps if you show us a good time we might get you something."

"Noon is always a good time. Perfect time to have lunch, and wake up from sleeping in. See good time! Well I don't need anything so maybe I should get going. Things to do, you know." Steve tried to pull away but they held on fast. It wouldn't be so easy to escape these human manacles.

The two of them ignore him and shared a grin with one another. "Isn't he a silly little thing?"

Peeking out from the corner of a light post Steve caught sight of Bahamut standing there with a hand over his mouth shaking with laughter. The little bastard! The teen wouldn't put it past him to be controlling these girls. What was this, revenge for the perv comment?

Needless to say the rest of the night was an adventure all of its own. Steve will forever refer to it as the _Barbie and Bambi Ordeal_.

* * *

Despite the constant fan attacks Zanarkand was a really nice place. It was the day of the Jecht Memorial Cup, and Tidus was taking care of some things. Steve sat on the railing of Tidus' boathouse watching the setting sun reflect off the water. It had been a week since he appeared in Zanarkand and Bahamut didn't have much to say except that if he was in danger he should concentrate and the means to protect him will be made apparent.

At least it was better than the two word vague advice that he gives Tidus. Seriously how did _'Don't cry. It begins'_ translate into we're-going-to-fling-your-ass-into-another-world-where-your-life-will-become-a-soap-opera-and-you-have-to-commit-patricide-to-save-the-world-oh-by-the-way-you-aren't-real-and-you're-going-to-disappear-in-front-of-the-girl-you-love. Yeah, thanks for the heads up Bahamut.

Of the other fayth, Steve thought he saw Ifrit in town the other day arguing with some white haired guy wearing some type of cape over his shoulder. The guy had four braided dreadlocks framing his face that looked really similar to a certain thunder horse. Steve had the feeling that he was another of the fayth.

What was he going to do? Sin was going to attack the city tonight. It would probably be best to go with Tidus when he goes to Spira, but should he go to the stadium? It would probably be hard trying to stay alive in the attack. Maybe it would be better to met them at that billboard of Jecht's. Wasn't it on the building that they ran across before they went to Spira? It was probably the best he could come up with. He just needed to work on acting surprise when he runs into the two later.

"I need to speak with you." A familiar voice spoke up right behind the teen and he almost took an unexpected swim. For a moment he thought it was one of the fayth with their annoying habit of appearing out of nowhere.

"Auron?" This was the first time Steve had seen the older man since he woke up.

"Is Tidus here?"

"Oh, he went out a while ago to do some things. I think he's going to be back in a little while if you needed to talk to him."

"I see." Auron turned and started to walk away. "Come."

Steve's eye twitched. What the hell was with these commands? What was he a dog? Auron threw a sharp glance over his shoulder, and Steve relented following the man. Whatever he wanted it seemed serious. Auron didn't say anything just leading him further into the city. The sun had finished setting a while ago, but still Auron kept walking.

What the hell were they doing? Tidus' game was about to begin. "Hey!"

"Not here." Auron stopped outside one of the buildings and looked towards the top. "Let's go up there." The guardian entered the building heading straight towards the elevator. Steve barely managed to catch the elevator. Auron ignored the teen. He must've had a lot of practice with Tidus.

Eventually they apparently reached their floor as Auron exited the elevator and entered the balcony area. Auron boldly hopped over the railing and calmly walked out of the protruding ledge. Steve's jaw dropped. This was the area that Auron first appeared in the game. The red light at the end was casting shadows on the legendary guardian. Steve walked out onto one of the other ledges running parallel to Auron's all the while wondering what this was about.

Auron turned towards him, his empty sleeve flapping in the wind. "Oui yna vnus Spira, yna oui hud?" (A/N: For those too lazy to wait till the end to get a translation. "You are from Spira, are you not?")

Steve's eyes bugged out. He could understand what the man was saying. "Oui lyh cbayg Al Bhed?!" (A/N: "You can speak Al Bhed?!") Hearing the language caused Steve to slip into it as well much to his surprise. He had meant for that to come out in English.

Auron just grunted. "I knew that something was happening last week, and suddenly you appeared on the same day. Only a being composed of pyreflies is able to ride Sin and travel to this Zanarkand. I watched you for a week and you showed no envy for the living. Is it possible that you are unaware that you are dead?"

"I'm not dead." After that dream Steve did not want to be questioning his mortality again. "I never have encountered Sin."

A dark brow lifted in surprise. "If only we all could be so lucky as to never have encountered Sin. If you didn't use Sin then how did you get here?"

"Hell if I know." Steve shrugged and maybe he imagined it, but he swore Auron twitched at the admission. "That's the question of the week. They weren't exactly gentle on trying to get the information out of me."

Apparently Auron knew perfectly well who Steve was referring to. "They sacrificed everything in order to keep this peaceful city. I doubt they take it easy on what they consider threats."

"They did this to you too didn't they? I'm curious between you and them who won?" Steve couldn't see it but Auron was smirking behind his tall collar.

"Do you wish to stay in Zanarkand?"

Steve shook his head. He had the feeling that playing through the game would probably be the chance to get home. In the far distance the green eyed teen could see a huge tidal wave approaching the city.

The red garbed man raised a toast with his white jug with a nostalgic look on his face. "You'll get your first look at Sin." Auron began walking off. "I'll return you to Spira. Follow me."

When they got back on the streets Steve was having a hard time simply following the older man. It wasn't like the man was running but still.

"Er… Auron? Shouldn't we be… um─" The teen gestured wildly at the oncoming destruction, "you know…running?" How the hell was he walking calmly through the city as it was being destroyed right on their heels. This was reminding him of those action movies where the people would calmly and slowly walk away as a building blew up behind them while slipping on their sunglasses. Auron already had his on.

"Why should I run for my life? I don't have one."

"So instead you'll just walk as badass as you can?" Steve face palmed.

The warrior only response was to roughly grab Steve's arm and shove the teen before him.

* * *

The teen sulked at the quintessential samurai, and tried to ignore the water sloshing around in his boots. With a dark look he pointingly wringed out one of his ends of his cloak. Of course Auron just ignored him leaning against the rubble as the rest of the world ran about panicking.

"You could've warned me."

"If you saw me jumping out of the way that should have clued you in. You must be aware of your surroundings at all times. Besides how did you miss the water sphere crashing down?"

The red head flushed as red as his hair. How does one dodge that large volume of water. The whole playing field had come crashing down. He crossed his arms ignoring how the wet fabric rubbed at his skin.

"The people of Zanarkand are too soft." Auron sounded a bit disgusted. "They need a better strategy for city attacks."

"I wouldn't call synchronized panicking a strategy."

Auron snorted and a rare smirk spread across his face. "Indeed."

"Auron! Steve! What are you two doing here?" Tidus ran over to them looking a little battered. The blonde was also dripping wet, but that was more understandable since he was just playing blitzball. Some dust from the wreckage coated his left side creating this goopy mess. This was looking a lot more real than the game.

"We were waiting for you." Auron abruptly walks off leaving the two soaking teens behind.

Tidus turned bewildered eyes to Steve. "What is he talking about?"

"Shit's about to happen." Was the deadpanned answer before Steve also ran off.

"Shit is already happening!"

Steve caught up to Auron as he walked along the road. Geeze does this guy always walk along during disasters. Around him the world froze again. Looks like Bahamut was having a word with Tidus. Auron didn't look too concern with the chaos halting.

"Do you have a weapon?"

He was about to say no. "Yes." For some reason he believe what he said. He stared at his right hand knowing that he was armed in some way. A faint memory of power teased the edges of his memories.

"Good."

The blonde nearly crashed into Steve. "Hey, not this way!"

"Look!" The two followed the man's line of sight and spotted the giant floating sphere of water. Tidus stumbled back a step as Steve's eyes went huge. From within Sin's numberous eyes were distorted by the surface of the water. "We call it Sin."

"Sin?"

They were interrupted as they noticed a giant tentacle on the nearby building thrashing about. Suddenly the scales flew off and the road shook with the force of them hitting the bridge. The three were quickly surrounded by the army of sinspawn. They were quick things shuffling about on their insect-like legs. Steve yelped as he barely dodged a swipe of a spiked wing. Tidus was trying to fend them off with his bare hands alone, and fell flat on his ass.

Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Auron pull two swords out of midair from behind his back. How exactly did he do that? While Auron gave Tidus the gift from his father Steve tried to arm himself.

Ok so what was it that Bahamut said to do? When in danger concentrate? Something about the stress causing him to manifest something. He threw all caution to the wind. Auron was a legendary guardian surely he could bail his ass out if this didn't work. He recklessly ran in, flipping and cartwheeling right into the middle of the fiends.

Adrenaline started flowing and he let his instinct take control. Steve heard a piercing bird's cry just before he backflipped out of the way of another fiend. Shards of metal materialize in an arc around his spinning body. They followed the rotation of his body and took out all the nearby fiends. When he landed the shards were still swirling around the amazed teen. Auron and Tidus ran through the opening he had created.

"Cut the ones that matter, and run!" Auron yelled out the order.

Both him and Tidus took the front as Steve covered their backs. Whatever his weapon was it was like an extension of himself as it followed his movements. The teen swung his arm like he was holding a sword and the shards flew to his hand to create an impressive looking black sword that cut down the enemies in front of him before returning to its floating shard stage. One of the sinspawn out of Steve's reach jumped at Tidus' unprotected back. Without thinking about it Steve grabbed one of the large metal shards and threw it at the fiend. The thing transformed midflight into a javelin that killed the monster instantly.

Fuck Matt and his lightsaber! This weapon was a hundred times better. Steve hissed when he was hit by the flying spines of the monster. Now was probably not the time to be going giddy over his new toy. It wouldn't do to lower his guard in the middle of a fight. The red head gritted his teeth against the pain as he followed the others over the hill as the ground shook with the arrival of more fiends.

At the top of the hill they spotted a huge tentacle monster embedded into the ground. Auron charged towards it. Tidus gaped with an arm raised in a futile attempt at stopping his mentor, and Steve took a brief moment to indulge in one of the many potions Bahamut gifted him with before running to join the guardian in battle.

As they got close enough the Sinspawn Ammes waved it's giant tentacle casting Demi at them. Steve grimaced as the force crushed him. It felt worse than he imagined because it also was like someone yanked down on his innards just for them to spring back into place.

"Get out of my town!"

"Some can't wait to die!"

"… that just looks wrong." The two sent Steve looks for ruining the whole tense battle mode. "Someone please tell me we aren't fighting a giant phallic monster!"

Auron braced himself holding out one arm as the air around him charged with energy. The air surrounding him crackled and grew heavy as he got ready to use his Dragon Fang. The former warrior monk leapt straight fairly high into the air angling the tip of his katana towards the ground. Auron came back to earth with the force of a man ten times his weight. The ground around his embedded blade grew hot red as power surged underneath them and exploded upwards in a show of fire as it erupted beneath the sinspawn surrounding the Sinspawn Ammes. All the smaller sinspawn died littering the sky with their pyreflies.

Steve clenched his fists and the shards weaved together to formed two swords. He smirked as he experimentally swung through the air before he slid into a low stance that felt natural. Weapons made specifically for him. How cool was that? Both him and Tidus ran out to opposite sides from Auron to flank the monster.

Tidus swooped in striking fast and hard. The blonde immediately leapt back as some the smaller tentacles shot towards him in retaliation. It wasn't able to do that in the game. Steve spun in a circle batting the two heading towards him away. So much for standing next to it hacking away if they stood still too long the thing would hit them. Time to do some hit and run. Auron who wasn't as fast as the two teens just allowed the thing to attack him cutting them down as they reached striking distance. It looked like there was fog of pyreflies floating around the warrior from all the tentacles dying.

They all flinched back as the thing casted Demi again. The ground around them cratored from the force. Pressing it's advantage the tentacles whipped down and managed to smack both Tidus and Steve off their feet. Auron who was more familiar to pain managed to block the attack with the flat of his blade. Tidus went bouncing across the road and Steve cried out as he slammed into the guardrail on the side. They were knocked out of the fiend's attack range leaving the experienced warrior on his own for now.

The red head spat out a mouthful of blood as he climbed to his feet. Across from him Tidus rolled onto his feet with a groan. They met each other's gaze and after hours of practicing in the water they instantly read the message they sent at each other. The Zanarkand blitzer ran back into the fray with Steve close behind making his way to his friend. The Sinspawn Ammes had finally wised up and was no longer blindly attacking Auron just throwing out Demis daring the man to come closer to attack where Auron's speed would be his disadvantage.

As soon as Tidus was in range the tentacles shot at him, but with a neat twist he dodged it and pinned the appendage to the ground with his sword. Steve ran up and used the older teen's back as a spring board to jump up and run along the pinned tentacle. As if sensing the intruder all the other arms leapt towards him allowing Auron to take a few uninterrupted strikes. Tidus destroyed Steve's impromptu ramp just as the red head jumped off flipping through the air dodging the writhing arms and jamming both swords up to the hilt into the trunk of the monster. On his way down Steve linked his hands together to boost Tidus in the midst of his Spiral Cut giving him more air for his flip. Just as Tidus' attack connected Steve concentrated on exploding his embedded weapons and the Sinspawn Ammes was finally destroy under the combination of both attacks.

Steve called the floating shards of metal back to himself and followed after the two who were leaving him behind. The teen saw the Save sphere, but didn't have a chance to investigated or else he would've been left behind.

"What are you laughing at, old man?" It was surprising Tidus had breath to waste while they continued their headlong dash past Jecht's electronical billboard. It must be the blitzball player in him. "Guys! Let's get out of here!"

"We're expected." Auron charged down the road, and with a shrug to Tidus Steve followed.

"Huh? Gimme a break, man!"

They didn't go very far before they skidded to a stop, surrounded on all sides by sinspawn. Steve formed two swords and warily eyed the mob practically salivating at the chance to tear into the three humans in front of them. Auron and Tidus cleaved through two just for more to take their place.

One of the monsters slammed into Auron before he managed to cut it down. "Hmph. This could be bad."

Steve blocked one of the monsters just as another leapt at him. He gasped and in surprise kicked it back. The sinspawn slammed into the oil tanker hanging off the side of the road. The air was filled with the screeching scream as the metal dragged acrossed the road.

"That─ knock it down!"

Tidus swung his sword about him in a circle to create some breathing room. "What?"

"Stop being such a dumbass, Tidus!"

"Trust me. You'll see."

As if demonstrating Auron whacked at the magnetic coupling holding the two pieces together before the mob forced him back. With them following the older man Tidus was able to take a shot. Tidus immediately had to dive out of the way as Steve started to play baseball and soccer with the fiends. Tidus joined in seeing that it was effective at dealing with the monsters and getting the job done. Some of the fiends died from the force of the blow and those that didn't laid stunned on the machinery.

In no time at all the oil tanker fell off the side and exploded again the side of the building. The whole building started to fall straight onto the road way they were standing on. They all scrambled back the way they had come from. Though Auron did managed to do so in a more diginified manner than the two teens. Damn talk about property damage! Oh the fayth are going to be so pissed at this mess. The fiends had gotten destroy in the ensuing chaos, and all three put away their weapons. Steve's had just vanished into the air, and he wasn't sure what Tidus and Auron did with their huge hulking swords. It was like it disappeared the moment it was out of sight behind their backs.

Remembering how close it was going to be in the game, Steve didn't even wait for Auron to tell him to go. Before the falling building even drew level with the street the teen had jumped on and was racing across. This kind of shit only happened in video games. A week earlier he would have probably been freaking out about it. The red head managed to make it to the other side of the road with plenty of time to spare. A moment later Auron grunted as he landed right next to him. Steve gaped at Sin above them slowly sucking in the road they were standing on. Damn this looked a lot more impressive in real life, but where was that light coming from? The teen gagged as he caught a whiff of Sin's toxin. Immediately he used his newly gained blitzball skills to hold his breath.

"Auron! Steve!"

Oh yeah Tidus didn't exactly make it all the way to the other side. Steve scrambled over to the edge and grabbed Tidus' hand while Auron talked to the giant writhing mass of flesh above them.

"You are sure?"

Seriously how was Auron talking to Jecht? The teen didn't see these so-called eyes that he claimed that he could see what Jecht wanted. The older warrior then leaned down and relieved Steve of the effort of hauling Tidus up by his collar. Steve's right eye twitched. How the hell did he pull that off so effortlessly?

"This is it. This is your story." He was barely holding onto the teen as Tidus was now caught in Sin's gravitational field. "It all begins here."

Just before they got sucked into the light Steve managed to yell out to Tidus one last thing. "See you on the other side!" The sensation was like he was being pulled through a very bright, tight tube before everything went black.

* * *

The fiend fell with a resounding thud and disintegrated into a cloud of pyreflies. The girl cursed underneath her breath as she pressed a hand against the wound on her side bleeding freely. The monsters were being attracted to the smell of her blood. Maybe it was safe enough to stop. She didn't see Genesis' little lapdog.

She collapsed onto one of the fallen logs away from the Moonflow roadway, and went about the task of taking care of her wound. The small honey haired girl sighed in relief as she saw that her Player Card was working properly even if she was in another's game system. She still had access to her items. Like a pro she quickly applied a potion to the memento that Matt had managed to grace her with before she escaped into the still open game. In amazement she watched as the wound knitted close. Well that was one problem down.

This was bad. Matt had followed her into the game, and she needed to find that guy before he accidentally breaks one of the obscure laws of the system and falls into Genesis trap. She sighed forlornly rubbing at her face. She had her work cut out for her.

* * *

A/N: Concept sketch for the girl will be going up sometime before the next chapter. It needs a little tweaking. Btw Steve's weapon is spawned by my indecision to decide on a weapon for him. I have an evil idea for a later scene since he can learn anyone's fighting style. Oh well this way I get to experiment with a bunch of fighting styles. God this story is turning into a dump for me to experiment. This is what I get for not writing in like 3 years.

I don't think I'll be using Bahamut a lot like I did during the first version of this. (This doesn't even resemble the 1st version) So I was trying to get it out of my system. You may be wondering wtf is up with the Al Bhed and the breath holding thing. Don't worry there is a reason, plus it sets up some fun for later.

Preview

Chapter Five: Sacrilegious and Sacred

_Ieyui _

_Nobomeno _

_Renmiri _

_Yojuyogo _

_Hasatekanae _

_Kutamae _

Steve broke the surface of the water and started shivering as the cold air hit his wet skin. The Hymn of the Fayth sounded much loudly now that he had broken the surface of the water. The water around him was glowing with a strange light of its own. The teen's jaw dropped as he caught sight of the source of the glowing liquid.


	5. Sacrilegious and Sacred

Okie I got off my ass (or rather I sat my ass down in front of a computer), and just finished this chapter. I kinda wrote it a couple of times. Not entirely my fault since the original chapter was on the stolen laptop. ;A; Finally finished this after watching some dumbasses sitting in their plastic "Predator box" and provoking the lions. (Don't ask I'm weird and easily amused) Lol I have a funny image of Zell sitting in the "Predator box" hiding from an angry Squall, and chucking hotdogs at him screaming "EAT THEM NOT ME!!!"

Btw if you read the my nubbier version of this you should know what happens to Steve. :3

I didn't really feel like doing a battle scene so I made the one in her kinda short. I chickened out and placed most of the battle in the next chapter. I don't know why but I didn't really enjoy this chapter as much, or rather I'm not as satisified. I dunno why though. I wrote 14 pages worth of something I didn't like. Oh well I hope you enjoy~

Disclaimer: Still in the corner being emo over lack of ownership. In fact it was a bit too emo so I started to keep some plants over here.

* * *

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter Five: Sacrilegious and Sacred

Steve was starting to become a pro at the whole waking up in a whole another place thing. Of course he knew that he was going to end up in Spira, but that is beside the point. As he slowly drifted back to consciousness the first thing he noticed as that he wasn't breathing. That in of itself is a startling fact to realize, but teen fought back the urge to gasp out when he quickly recognized the pressure of the water caressing him.

Green eyes opened just to close just as fast. Steve squinted at his watery surroundings. Okay, the last time he checked water shouldn't glow right? At least he hoped it was water. The thought that it could be something else made him slightly ill. It wasn't like it was radioactive waste right? Spira didn't really have that type of technology. Even when his eyes adjusted somewhat Steve found that he still couldn't distinguish his surroundings, everything was too bright to see anything. Plus for some reason there was a strange humming noise rumbling through his head.

There was no telling how long he had been in the water. He wasn't exactly Tidus who could sleep in the water for hours. Actually he never did find out how long he could hold his breath, and now probably was not the best time to be testing it. The pressure of the water wasn't unbearable so he couldn't be that deep. Steve started to swim upwards towards what was most likely the surface. The long tails of his cloak trailing about him like a pair of wings. Strangely enough the flow of water was flowing upwards towards the surface. Maybe he was in a spring of some sort?

As he swam further upwards the humming slowly became whispers of thoughts. The thoughts, wishes, hopes, dreams, and memories not his own assaulted his head. The red head stopped as he tried to deal with the alien sensation of the large multitude of thoughts coursed through his head. It wasn't that painful but it was disorientating. The multitude of voices echoed and blended into one another and left Steve feeling a little disoriented. Concentrating a little Steve was slowly able to pick out some of the words.

_I wanted to show the little one to you when you returned. He looked like you. I'll remember him because I cannot remember your face anymore._

_You went to protect us. Now I'll protect the last of the memories of our time together._

_I won't let Bevelle take everything that is precious to me. They cannot have the last memories I have of my happier times._

Steve halted as their endless mantra drilled into his mind. He winced as they blur together. They kept repeating relentlessly as if they could become real through sheer determination. Throughout all the clamor another more familiar voice rose up above the others.

_Do not venture this way. You do not share our dreams nor are you prepared to handle it. _

He knew that voice. Wasn't that Bahamut's voice? Suddenly Steve had a whole bunch of new questions, but now wasn't exactly the time. Besides with all the endless mantra drumming through his head Bahamut's suggestion sounded like the best idea right now. The teen flipped around and began swimming in the opposite direction. The slight flow made swimming more difficult, but as he continued downwards the voices settled back into a more bearable humming. If it was possible Steve might have sighed in relief, but seeing as he was currently in water that would be a stupid thing to do.

There didn't seemed to be an end to sight, but he continued fighting against the pull of the flow of the water (or whatever the glowing liquid was). His muscles started to groan in protest after awhile, but as he continued further he noticed that the glow wasn't as blinding and the liquid was a bit clearer. In fact look off towards his right he could make out what looked to be a rocky wall. Strange that he didn't noticed that before. It was the first bit of actually scenery that he had seen since he woke up so he swam in that direction.

Despite Steve's love of gymnastics and tumbling the teen didn't do so well with his science classes. His body seemed to instinctively know what he was doing even when he was spinning head over heels several feet above the floor at a height that might make a few people faint. The teen didn't care so much for how it was done or what other variables and forces factor in as he performed his stunts. All the redhead cared about was the incredible rush he felt and the feeling of flying through the air. It did not just compose of aerodynamics; it also included things like refraction. Whatever the liquid he was in must have had some insane refractive index; not that the information would have done the sciencephobe any good.

So it came to his surprise that the image of the rocky wall was actually not quite where he thought it was. It was actually refracted and wasn't as close as he thought it was. Steve gasped as his head broke the surface and the cold wind bit his wet skin. Green eyes nearly popped straight out of his head as he noticed that he was a very dizzying height above a large body of water. He didn't noticed then but he was actually within a waterspout that flowed upwards into the sky.

"Oh CRAP!" Steve flailed his arms and cursed as gravity decided that it didn't like this punk teen ignoring it's laws. Gravity won despite his protests. He screamed as he plummeted out of the sky. The impact was so horrendously painful that it made him black out for a moment. In that one moment his guard was down and a memory not his own slipped into his mind. Steve found himself looking out of another's eyes.

_Dirt covered hands tightly gripped the staff in a white-knuckled grip. The gaze did not stray from the staff even as they made their way along the mountain pass. The sounds of other shuffling feet resounded in the cold mountain air as they continued their march. A hand coming to rest on his shoulder brought him out of his dark thoughts._

"_Hey, are you alright." Looking up a battle worn warrior met his eyes. His uniform was all ripped in various spots, and covered in filth; filth that wasn't just limited to dirt. The soldier wore blood amidst the dirt and perspiration. The blood belonged to the enemies he slain, his own, and the life blood of those he fruitlessly tried to carry from the battlefield. His weary reddened eyes retold the story that his uniform sang of, the aftermath of the battle and all the horrors it entailed._

"_I don't think anyone here will ever be alright again." The gaze allowed back down to his hands still gripping that staff._

"_Don't be like that. We can't just give up now, especially not you."_

"_Why? Because I'm one of the summoners whose supposed to turned this war around in our favor?!" On the border of hysterics the summoner threw his staff onto the rocky ground where it clattered loudly in the new silence._

_Seeing that all the others were looking at the pair the soldier pulled the other out of the path of the others. "Seiren, calmed down we're not letting you summoners fight this war alone. The others look up to you because they respect you for your powers so you shouldn't look upon your powers with such disdain." _

"_They look up to me? So I should be cheerful to boost the morale of the others?" The young summoner scoffed. "I think after they watched all the other summoners get massacred by Bevelle war machina there wouldn't be a point for me to pretend anymore." There was a tense silence and the summoner looked up to see the grief-stricken face of the warrior. "I'm so sorry Yohimbine. I forgot that your brother was__―"_

"_N-no―" Yohimbine's voice shook badly as he vigorous rubbed at his face. The man had run out of tears a long time ago. "My brother died a hero's death. It is because of him and the others that we are alive at all."_

"_Yeah and no thanks to me. I wasn't as strong nor as brave as the others to charge into the fight."_

"_Just because you weren't on the front line doesn't make you a coward." Yohimbine lightly shook the young summoner forcing him to look up at him. "Your summon is more suited to defense and you kept a lot of the troops alive."_

"_Alive huh? The troops would be alive if Bevelle didn't start this stupid war!" The warrior was taken aback at the bitterness in Seiren's voice. "Why did they start this war?! Do they want to kill us that badly?!"_

"_Seiren..."_

_Hands clenched so tightly they turned white and trembled. "Tell me what good ever come from wars? Why do people kill each other?"_

"_I know you are still young and you shouldn't have had to learn the ugly truth of death like this, but death is nothing new. Everyone and everything eventually dies. Whether it be by nature's hand, man's, or time's itself. Do you understand me? You shouldn't develop a hate of the people of Bevelle no matter how much they may deserve it. That type of thinking will lead you to madness. No matter how bleak it looks now this war too will have to come to an end, and nothing will ever heal if we cling to the grievances of the past." Yohimbine sighed and he was looking wearier by the minute. "I can't answer why Bevelle started this war. Men have always been involved in war. As long as people disagree there will always war. People will join the sides they believe in. As long as there is 'the other side' people will always be involved in war."_

"_Would wars stop if there were no more sides? If everyone could gather on one side, would people stop killing one another?"_

"_One side?" The warrior was skeptical. "Just what would be big and important enough that would unite everyone together to fight against it?"_

_The summoner lifted up his head and the warrior was taken aback by the strange, deranged, determined look on his companion's face. "Maybe death itself―"_

Steve jerked back into consciousness. His ears still rang with that strange humming, but the teen slowly became aware of another soundthat was slightly distorted by the water. It was a very familiar sound. Pushing the whole episode of the strange scene Steve swam up towards the surface and the light. Slowly the words became more clearer as he got closer. It was a song. He knew this song, but why was he hearing it now?

_Ieyui _

_Nobomeno _

_Renmiri _

_Yojuyogo _

_Hasatekanae _

_Kutamae _

Steve broke the surface of the water and started shivering as the cold air hit his wet skin. The Hymn of the Fayth sounded much loudly now that he had broken the surface of the water. The water around him was glowing with a strange light of its own. The teen's jaw dropped as he caught sight of the source of the glowing liquid.

"OH FUCK NO!" Angrily he lashed out a fist sending up a plume of water. "Why doesn't anything ever go according to plan?! I'm on the freaking wrong side of Spira!"

The teen could make out the fayth wall halfway up the cliff face bordering a small trail that the pilgrimages walked along on their way to the holy city of Zanarkand. There was some type glowing mist being emitted from the fayth. Following its trail Steve could see that it flowed across the path before it slid down the cliff and cascaded into the lake that he was in. Steve eyed the liquid in trepidation. Did this mean that he was currently swimming in the dream Zanarkand citizens? The only good he could see out of this whole mess was that he figured out why he was hearing the Hymn of the Fayth.

Abruptly something snagged his ankle and yanked him a couple of yards beneath the surface. Through the bubbles Steve could see a small whirlpool was encircling his ankle. Suddenly a chorus of voices spoke up in synchronization within his head.

_Please refrain from doing that, especially since the dream is in such a disarray after Sin's rampage._

He choked on a surprised yelp. Was that the Gagazet fayth? The powerful force of the whirlpool suddenly began dragging him through the water at a very fast pace. His hands flew up to pinch his nose shut as he was dragged upwards at an increasing speed. Then like a cannonball Steve was sent flying through the air. The top of his arch placed him right at the cliff, and just as he began to fall back down Steve reached out and grabbed the rocky surface with a jarring jolt. Thankfully his hands weren't shredded due to the durable material of his gloves. Apparently Fayth-made items were very high quality.

His teeth clattered as another gush of wind brought his attention back to his predicament. It was best to deal with this one problem at a time. He had to find shelter quickly before he succumb to the elements. After he wasn't in danger of freezing to death my he could deal with his location malfunction.

Even though he had never been rock climbing before it looked like he was in for a crash course, or maybe crash course was a bad choice of words considering his predicament. There were a few near misses as his wet hands slipped from it grip. Fortunately the glowing mist flowing over the cliff didn't impede his progress. It was like it condensed back to a liquid further down. At least it did prevent the frost from settling on the rocks, and for that he was thankful.

After what felt like forever the teen closed in on the ledge where the Fayth wall rested. He was so close, but he had ran out of foot and hand holds. If he couldn't get up here he would have to backtrack and find another path, and that might take time that he didn't have. The red head reached out his hand flailing it out as he stretched out to the ledge. He grunted as he missed. Well he could probably reach it if he jumped, but it was kind of an one shot thing.

His arms were getting tired so he threw all caution. Steve took a deep breath as he leaned back into his haunches in preparation to jump. He left it out in a shuddering sigh before he launched himself into the air. Just before his hands grabbed the ledge a blue blur came streaking out of the glowing mist crushing his forearms in a painful grip. Almost effortless Steve found himself being plucked off the side of the cliff.

He nearly lost an eye to the sharp horn as the ronso brought the teen up to face level that left his feet dangling in the air. Holy shit! No wonder why Kimahri was considered a runt. This guy made Yuna's guardian look like a kitten. "You filthy heretic! How dare you defile the sacred grounds!" The ronso's visage was contorted in rage and his teeth bared in a very toothy snarl invaded Steve's whole vision. His eyes were narrowed in anger; one a feral yellow and the other filmed over white by a scar running through his left eye. He wore his brown hair short with a feathered ornament whose style seemed very familiar.

Steve was about ready to throw a tantrum. Someone up there must really hate him. First it was being thrown into the game console and Sheridan girl with the whole "You should not be here!", then with Bahamut's "You do not belong.", and now he was pissing off the blue cat man for appearing to have taken a dip in the sacred fayth spring. From his reaction you would've thought that Steve did something more horrendous like he flipped the Maester's robes over his head or something.

Perhaps now was the time to steal Tidus' excuse and blame this whole thing on Sin's Toxin. So strange that Spira had such a cliché plot device built right in. Mysterious character with amnesia searching for their forgotten past. Spira was just asking for fanmade OCs.

"I didn't know. I got to close to Si― ahhh ah AHHHCHOO! Crap..."

The ronso dropped Steve right onto his ass. Yeah nothing ever did go according to plan, but it wasn't really his fault. It was snowing and he was completely wet so it wasn't a real surprise that he was starting to get sick. There was a tense silence as the ronso wiped the teenager's little present off his face. Between blue claws one yellow eye narrowed dangerously at him, and he began to stalk towards the redhead. Steve mentally cursed Tidus. It wasn't fair the blitzball player ends up at Besaid after Baaj Temple. A tropical island sounded really good right about now.

Steve flinched as a loud roar reverberated off the rocky walls around them. For a moment the teen thought the ronso was the one who was roaring, but a young girl's scream made him realize that the roar had actually came from somewhere further away.

The ronso's face took on a mask of horror. "Oh Yevon! Jukala followed Yeku!" For such a huge being Yeku took off like a bullet the ground shaking with his pounding footsteps as he sprinted away.

Steve sat there in stunned silence for a moment before another horrifying scream forced him into action, and he leapt to his feet and followed. The snarls of a monster were mixed with the cries and grunts of the girl's and Steve was afraid that they were too late to help. There was a sickening crunch and the teen mentally braced himself for the worst. Even though he was much larger than Steve, the ronso's agility was far greater than that of the teenager's, and Yeku soon outpaced him and disappeared from sight.

Steve rounded the corner right into a cloud of pyreflies of the fiend that the ronso had just managed to kill in his haste. The ronso's headlong dash was halted with a loud boom as a Bashura intercepted him grappling his large form with his four arms. The two of them went tumbling in a blur of blue and purple into the snowbank, sending plumes of snow flying about. It was impossible to tell exactly who was the one making the snarls and growls and roars. It could be either the ronso or the fiend.

He wasn't able to watch or help because in a moment a large reptilian Nidhogg broke it's formation with another Nidhogg to lunge up the hill at him. At the last second he sidestepped and formed a shield just as the fiend's horns glanced the improvised armor with a jarring force. Sparks flew from the contact. The snowy ground offered the teen no traction and Steve was sent sliding back down the slope as the fiend charged through the space he once occupied. He tumbled down the slope a few yards getting snow in places best not described. In the midst of the free fall he managed to get the shield underneath him and rode it as a snowboard.

Behind him the Nidhogg skidded trying to turn, sending up a bunch of snow before it dashed down hill after him. Steve paled as he faced forward. He was heading straight towards the other Nidhogg. Fortunately for him the fiend was snapping at something on the other side. Steve kicked the back of the impromptu board popping it up into the air and almost flew over the fiend. His jump was a little short and he ended up landing on the fiend's head causing it to faceplant with his shield stuck on the horns. The jolt had him grabbing onto the horns to steady himself.

He lifted his head and found that staring at him in stunned speechlessness was the source of the screaming earlier. Steve returned her stunned stare. It was a very young ronso girl, but he never knew albino ronsos existed. The growl beneath him brought him back to the matter at hand. His hands darted out and grabbed the surprised ronso tucking her small frame under his arms seconds before it used it powerful neck muscles and launched the two of them into the air.

"NO! JUKALA!" The larger ronso had just delivered the killing blow to the Bashura and just turn in time to see the two begin plummeting towards the waiting jaws of the fiend.

Steve's mind raced if he didn't do anything soon they would soon be dinner. He needed something big and heavy. Something that will take advantage of their falling momentum and kill the fiend. The fragments of his unique weapon began filled the air as it formed the first thing that came to his mind. The air echoed with the resounding wet crunch as Steve used Cloud's famous Buster sword to break open the fiend's skull. The vibration of the hit traveled up the sword causing the redhead to wince in pain, and let it go in shock. The fiend vanished into pyreflies with a good portion of the Buster sword's blade buried into the ground.

"WATCH OUT!" The deep roar made Steve instinctively react. If he thinks back on it later the teen wouldn't be able to tell anyone (let alone himself) why he reacted the way he did.

Steve flung the girl behind the flat side of the Buster sword and the Nidhogg's horn rammed it but the sword held and just clanged horribly. It was not as horrible as the scream of pain the erupted from Steve as the tip of the horn impaled through his abdomen. His world exploded in pain as the fiend jerked it's head flinging Steve to the ground. The monster's gaping maw rushed at him.

The ground beneath him shook and there was a grunt and the teen weakly opened his eyes to see jaws vainly snapping at his head. Yeku was grappling with the horns barely holding the fiend away. With a snarl he began to overpower it, pulling it's head up, and unexpectedly exposing it's vulnerable throat to the dying teen. Steve held up one hand flushed against the throat and with the last of his energy clenched his fist causing the Buster sword to form straight through the monster. He slipped unconsciousness just as it disappeared along with his fanmade weapon.

The male ronso immediately began searching for his Hi-potions as he dropped down to a crouch at the teen's side. The snow beneath them was quickly darkening with the deep red of blood.

"Daddy, Jukala is so sorry! Didn't want to be alone. T-t-this is Jukala's fault!" The small white furred ronso collapsed in tears cradling Steve's head. "He saved Jukala's life! Please save him! Don't die!" (A/N: Oh GAWD! How the hell do you do ronso speech?! D: I fail so bad it burns!!!)

Yeku was grimacing as he surveyed the damage. The Nidhogg had managed to pierce straight through. Thankfully it missed the spine and most of the vital organs, but the cold weather, blood lost, and extensive internal damage were going to finish what the fiend had failed to do.

Tears swam in the young ronso's red eyes and Yeku quickly handed the Hi-potions over to her. "Give them to him while Yeku heals!" The curt command managed to restore some of his daughter's composure and she quickly went about the task given to her. Meanwhile Yeku took a deep breath concentrating on an art he had not used in awhile. His clawed hand began glowing with a white glow and the ronso placed it over Steve's wound. His hand was so large it spanned over most of his abdominal and chest, and his brows furrowed with the effort of casting a Curaga.

After awhile Yeku fell back onto his haunches with a sigh rubbing at his temples. They had managed to stop the bleeding but the small human was very pale from the blood loss and still wet and shivering. Yeku cursed under his breath of the foolishness of humans not having the common sense to grow fur coats before they attempt to climb snowy mountains. His small daughter was staring at him expectantly.

"Foolish pups should charge not into battles. The sacred mountain is not forgiving on the weak." Her ears drooped low at the rebuke, and Yeku placed a hand atop her snowy white head. She turned her red eyes expecting a stern disapproval, but his face had soften despite the scar harshly marring his face with his filmed white eye.

"Yeku is just glad that Jukala is alive, and that this young pup is also surprisingly strong as well." The tall ronso hefted the teenager over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. "Come the mountain is not as welcoming to humans as it is to ronsos." He started to walk off, and Jukala sprinted besides him to keep up with his much longer legs.

If it weren't for the bright colors of her outfit or her red eyes turning to him every so often Jukala would've blended right into the snow around him. She finally seemed to gather her courage or thought that if she was already in trouble it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Daddy, what exactly is a human?" She shank back embarrassed at his silent reply. "Why stare at Jukala like that?"

* * *

Meanwhile in another part of Spira a certain blonde wasn't exactly feeling lucky with his situation of landing in a new world. At least he didn't have a panic attack like another certain teenager when he got transported for the first time. However Steve's reason of being knocked out upon arrival in Spira definitely sounded more heroic and epic compared to Tidus' 'I got knocked out by some girl in googles that spoke another language'. The little bruise on Tidus' stomach had nothing on the bloody gouge Steve had received.

After being stiff-armed from entering the ship proper the blitzball player reclined against the crates with his head being supported with his hand on the deck, and thought about the recent events that just happened. First Zanarkand was attacked by that huge whale monster thing. Then he wakes up in those ruins completely alone, and continously attacked by monstrous creatures. Things were looking up when those people came in and helped him, but then they knocked him out and now he was like their freaking slave. How did he go from winning a blitzball game to sitting outside like a bad misbehaving dog?!

Actually now that he thought about it both Auron and Steve seemed to be expecting the attack. Auron even knew the name of that thing that attacked the city, and Steve seemed really adamant about making sure he was stocked with potions and the like on the day of the game. Suddenly Auron's strange sword lessons and Steve's mysterious arrival seemed really suspicious. Tidus could recall that everything seemed new and bizarre to Steve those first couple of days. It was like he was seeing everything for the first time. He did seem to be familiar with stuff, but it was like he couldn't believe any of it was real.

Just then his stomach growled and he groaned. "Uhh... hungry." Suddenly his elbow was kicked out from under him and Tidus nearly faceplants into the metal flooring. His protests are quieted when the strawberry blonde from earlier slides a tray of food of him. "Whoa! Right on!" Without even looking for utensils or checking what type of food it was Tidus started shoveling it into his mouth.

The younger teen watched in horror as he gulped down most of the tray within seconds, and it wasn't much a surprise when he began to choke. The Al Bhed offered the canteen she didn't bother handing over earlier lest she lose an arm. Tidus snatched it away from her and quickly used it to unclog his tubes.

She leaned over the blitzball player lightly chided him. "It's cause you eat too fast." He quickly popped up onto his feet surprising her and stretching out his arms. "Hey!"

Tidus turns around abruptly."Hello there. What is your name?"

He asked so politely that she found herself answering automatically. "Rikku."

"Whoa! You really do understand!" He grabbed her hand excitedly and immediately Rikku looked like she was regretting it as she shook her hand free. Tidus seemed very happy at the revelation. His exuberance began to die down and he turned back to her suspiciously. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I didn't get the chance to! Everyone thought oui were a fiend."

"Uh... 'we'?'

"Oh, 'oui' means 'you.'" Her accompanying hand gestures just seemed to confused him further rather than helping him. She walked past him as he attempted to work it out.

Tidus copied the hand motion there was something nagging at the back of his mind. Then it hit him Steve's first words upon waking was very similar to the language they have been babbling in, but was it the same? "If oui means you, then what does 'dryhg oui' mean?"

Rikku blinked owlishly at him but answered nonetheless. "It means 'thank you.'"

"What language is it? Who are you guys, anyway?"

"We're Al Bhed. Can't you tell? Wait. You're not an Al Bhed-hater, are you?"

"I don't even know what an Al Bhed is. Though I do have a friend that can speak your language. He seemed a little panicky when he spoke it aloud in front of me. Did Steve think I was an Al Bhed-hater or something?"

"Where are you from?"

"Zanarkand. I'm a blitzball player." He mimed out kicking a ball. "Star player of the Zanarkand Abes!" Remembering what Steve said that first day he added. "I'm Tidus by the way."

Beneath her strange headgear her face took on a dubious look. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"Um, you guys hit me."

"Oh, right... Do you remember anything before that?"

Tidus walked over and joined her at the railing and began telling her everything there was to tell about Zanarkand. Including how he and the others were engulfed in a light. Rikku got more quiet the longer he went on.

"Did I say something funny?"

"You were near Sin. Don't worry, you'll be better in no time. They say your head gets funny when Sin is near. Maybe you just had some kind of dream?" The Al Bhed asked almost hopefully.

"You mean I'm sick?" It was obvious from his tone just what he thought of that theory.

"Because of Sin's toxin, yeah."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, there is no Zanarkand anymore. Sin destroyed it a thousand years ago. So..." She pushed off against the railing. "no one plays blitzball there."

It took a moment for it to sink it and Tidus spun to her in shock and a little anger. "What do you mean, a thousand years ago? But I saw Sin attack Zanarkand! You're saying that happened a thousand years ago? No way!"

"You said... you play blitzball? You know, you should go to Luca. Someone might know who you are, or you might find someone you recognize."

"Luca?" Rikku groaned seeing that the Toxin was really bad if it was affecting his memory that badly.

"Wait! You said you had a friend who can speak our language? This guy, Steve, did he..." She briefly hesitated. "have green eyes?" At Tidus' nod she perked up again. "I think your friend might be an Al Bhed. I could send out the news to the others to be on the lookout for him. I could find him for you!" Before Rikku could run off a thought hit her and she turned back to Tidus with a warning. "Oh and one thing. Don't tell anyone you're from Zanarkand, okay? Yevon says it's a holy place. You might upset someone."

Tidus turned back to the water with a bewildered and skeptical look masking his face over the news of his hometown. This situation was drastically over his head.

* * *

The state of consciousness is such a fickle thing. What truly defines it? Was it the level of awareness, mental faculties fully active? Is one ever truly fully conscious in their waking moments, when they were awake and going through their day? Some people lost to their depression have been known to go through their days in a daze barely conscious of what they were doing.

Dreams can be very vivid and some have been able to recall being very conscious of the surroundings. Some to the point where they would describe smelling something or even feeling something within the dream, but because it was a dream most would say they weren't conscious of anything since those things were not real. Some people claim that meditation can help one reach a higher level of consciousness, and to further complicate matters there is the subconscious―the conscious beneath conscious, the one that you couldn't access. (Unless you used hypnosis)

Steve drifted in and out of consciousness with his subconscious tag teaming in to give him strange snatches of dreams. His mind caught brief sensations or information of his location when he was semiconscious. One being an episode of pain racking his body, and a loud warning roar that yelled "Careful!" before he knocked out again. The girl from the game system appeared in another one of his dreams but this time they just sat down at a tea party discussing why people like going cloud watching. It was as boring as knitting. Not that Steve had any experience in that activity. He hovered on the edge of waking again only to catch the facts that he was no longer cold, there was a fire nearby, and he could feel the softness of some material brushing against his cheek.

When Steve slipped back out of consciousness, he found himself sitting in a classroom. The hands resting on the desk in front of him were smaller and chubbier than it was a moment ago. Looking around the seats were occupied by small eight year old children, and sitting in the desk besides him was a younger version of his friend Mike who looked so bored that he was about to fall asleep.

Before he could say anything he was interrupted by the teacher placing a handout on his desk. Along the top of the paper it say **My Dream is **andbeneath was a blank space.

"Okay class as I saying earlier. After studying Martin Luthor King Jr. all week I'm sure the only thing you'll really remember is his famous quote of 'I have a dream'." The teacher chuckled with a bemused look on his face. "Mr. King had a dream, and he believed in and worked towards that dream. Nothing great can happen if it wasn't dreamed up by people like you and I. You cannot have a goal unless it is dreamed up you see? Dreams are powerful stuff. Look at all the things we have managed to accomplish today. Let me tell you kids I wouldn't want to go back to the days when we were poo slinging animals." His miming of poo slinging and monkey noises made a few of the children laugh. "Now take about 15 minutes to think about and draw your dream. Maybe it's what you want to be when you grow up or something you see yourself doing."

Steve stared blankly at the paper. The now de-aged teenager was at a loss as to what he was going to put. He enjoyed living in the present so thinking about his future wasn't exactly his cup of tea. Perhaps he should take the easy way out and draw something a eight year old would likely put, like Mike who was drawing a basketball player.

"You don't even know your own dream?"

Steve froze, the crayon falling from his slack fingers. He knew that voice. The redhead spun around in his seat to the person in the desk behind him. He paled as he took in the purple hooded boy casually completing the assignment as if it was the norm. Taking a quick look around no one seemed to notice the strangely dressed kid who stood out in a classroom of normally modern dressed kids. The fayth did not raise his eyes from his handout, and Steve's eyebrows jumped up when he noticed that the boy was crudely drawing what appeared to be his dragon aeon form.

"Time's running out. You better find what your dream is before it's too late."

In a panic Steve turned back to his desk, and quickly placed crayon to the paper. Instead of meeting the resistance of the paper and desk, he screamed in surprise as he fell through and into the page. Steve jerked up into sitting position and his screaming were quickly drowned out with a groan of pain.

Small hands helped him back to a reclining position. It was only after he was settled back against the cushions that he noticed that he was staring at the white ronso from earlier, and belatedly realize that he was finally awake. Steve found himself in a cozy cave lined with fur and other items that suggested that it was a home. Barely noticeable from the roar of the fire was the sound of water further in the cave.

The albino ronso was staring curiously at him, and so Steve could the opportunity to return the favor. It was strange but instead of having blue fur hers was an extremely pale shade of blue that it seemed white. She had a faint tone of blue and gray. If she was outside Steve had no doubt that she would blend right in with the snow. It was like she was like some animals that develop a winter coat, and for such an intimidating shade of red her eyes seemed very child-like and innocent. Her outfit tended to stray towards the warmer colors like of oranges and reds. Her hair was kept longer than most ronsos trailing down to between her shoulder blades. Her hair was braided and tied back with beads and feathers with a very tribal look. Actually those beads kind of reminded him of Yuna's little accessory. Did Yuna actually pick that up from Kimahri?

"Why no horn?"

"W-what?" Steve stuttered as the little furball pounced on him brushing his bangs out the way to inspect his forehead.

"No horn. Daddy said that males grow horns when they reach 15 years old at the time of the Horn-molt. Said that you were a human around that age." She got this horrified yet fascinated look, and immediately grabbed the waist of his pants attempting to yank them down.

Steve yelped knocking her hand away and rolled over to the other side of the makeshift bed despite the pain that accosted him at the maneuver. "What do you think you're doing?!" She was only a child, and what the hell was she doing trying to undress him!

She shrugged. "Daddy could be wrong. Jukala was just checking if you were male."

The teenager facepalmed. "Ok, Jukala was it? I'm a guy. Humans don't grow horns. I think only ronsos do that. Haven't you noticed that humans don't have them?"

Her tail whipped about to her front and she bashfully wring it between her hands. "You're the first human Jukala has ever seen. Live much deeper in the mountain's embrace than any other ronsos so Jukala has never seen much of others."

"Oh I see." Steve rubbed his temple unsure of what to say to that. The slight twinge of pain from lifting up his arm reminded him of the wound he had gotten earlier. He immediately pulled up the bottom of his shirt to see a whitish round scar gracing his stomach.

"Jukala forgot!" She quickly bounded further into the cave out of sight. Moments later he could hear her return, and she skidded to a halt in front of him handing him some type of potion vial. "Supposed to take this when you awoke."

Jukala stared pointedly at him until he downed all of it, and almost immediately after he finished it Steve felt as good as new. Was it an elixir?

"Thank you." She beamed in response. "Um... Jukala? How exactly did I get here and where is your dad?"

"Daddy carried you here. You small compared to Daddy." Steve twitched at that. Didn't the girl know that her father was a giant? "Used much of the healing supplies on you. Daddy went down to the Meeting Ground to get some more."

"Meeting Ground?"

"The tribe's caves are not easily connected like the other races' villages. The mountain doesn't offer much options for the tribe. Only ronsos can get into ronsos' caves. The Meeting Ground is near the base of the mountain. Jukala never been there. It is a flat portion of land that makes it easier to gather together, and it makes the beginning of the walkable path. Daddy said humans can't climb the mountain like we can. Members of the tribe are always gathered there."

The redhead perked an eyebrow at the unexpected cultural lesson. That filled in the blanks of why the ronso didn't seem to have a village or housing in the game. It was off screen. So basically the foot of the mountain was like their town plaza, and where they greeted the humans who were trying to climb the mountain.

"What do you mean when you said 'Only ronsos can get into ronsos' caves'?"

Instead of answering Jukala grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the mouth of the cave. The teenager wished he could take back his question since it was a lot colder here than back by the fire. Once outside he saw that there was only a small narrowed ledge lining the front of the cave about seven feet from the mouth. There was no visible paths from the ledge. The cave was placed into the cliff side and large towering spires of rocks peeked out of the fog from the steep drop in front of them.

"Fuck! How do you get down from here?!"

Steve didn't like that mischievous fangish smile. With a small running start the ronso leapt out into the empty space. Green eyes popped out of his face as Jukala vanished into the fog.

"CRAP! Her dad is going to **kill** me!"

A girlish giggle mocked him. The fog cleared a bit and Steve saw much to his relief that Jukala was clinging to the top of one of those jagged rocky structures.

The little snowball launched herself from the stalagmite looking structure and leapt to the cliff face. With great agility she scrambled up the wall until she hung off the ledge. Jukala nonchalantly hung off the cliff with her forearms and just smiled at Steve. "We ronso live on a mountain. Be silly not to know how to climb it?"

Suddenly the mountain shook as a loud guttural cry flooded the air. Jukala dug her claws into the rock bed and started to pull herself up. Steve reached down and grabbed one of her arms, but the ronso pointed behind up at the area above him.

Looking over his shoulder saw a huge crablike spider Sinspawn clinging to the cliff above them. It's numerous eyes lit up as it fixed itself on the two. Four wing structures unfolded from it's back and with a mighty flap of those wings Steve and Jukala were swept off the cliff. The mountain shook as the fiend took off after them.

* * *

(A/N:)

For those who read the crappier first version of this should've been expecting me to do that. I have a fondness of chucking my characters off cliffs for cliff hangers. (If it's a cliff hanger why not actually use cliffs?)

Even if Steve isn't glued on the main character's ass he's still slightly changing the storyline. Now the Al Bhed are busier than ever! Restoring the airship, taking part in Operation Mi'ihen, kidnapping the summoners, and now they have to find Steve. I wonder if anyone can guess why our little Stevie got dumped in Gagazet? X3 Don't worry it'll come out eventually.

Btw I'm not really sure how agile the ronso are. But for some reason I can't forget how Kimahri leapt down those ruin in Besaid when he challenged Tidus to that small battle. He must've had practiced somewhere right?! The only reason I got out of my funk was because I watched the Animal Planet. XD So while I watching these two dumbasses sitting in a plastic box watching the lions trying to paw at them, I got inspired again. Lol now I have a bunch of weird ideas for the ronsos. You saw some here, but you'll see more in the next chappie.

I probably lost a lot of readers just with this odd twist, but whatever. When I take the idea of an Insert for a spin, I do far more than take it around the block. I take it through the drivethrough, rolling down the hill, up the park's slide, into the lake, into the mall (maybe leaving it parked there for awhile so people think it's for some contest? :D), and lastly my favorite off the cliff.

**Preview**  
Chapter Six: A Ronso's Tale

First impressions were apparently very misleading. What happened to the ronso who was about to tear his throat out with his teeth back at the Fayth wall? Steve stared in disbelief as Yeku totally ignored his bleeding ass to fret and clucked over Jukala. Who would've guessed that the big bad ronso was such a mother hen? Yeku turned her all around and even upside down in his search for any wounds. The ones that he found were immediately healed with a vengeance usually reserved for the battlefield.

Steve ached all over. He felt like one large bruise. As Yeku went on explaining why Jukala's help in the domestic affairs wouldn't work out, the teen eyed the snow bank next to him. Why not? It wasn't like he could bathe in potions. Steve just let himself toppled right into the snow bank with a sigh. Not exactly an ice pack, but it certainly did the job.


	6. A Ronso's Tale Part 1

(A/N:) This has been sitting on my laptop for some months... I dunno I kept nitpicking at it. (*Still thinks a little that it's not really ready but whatever*) Originally I wanted to fit the whole ronso part of the storyline in one chapter... but... OMG it just kept getting longer! I think I have to write another 20 or so pages to get to that part so instead I just decide to split it into parts. (Never done that before. Wonder if it'll turn out okay)

I really need to work on my fight scenes. This battle was so much more awesome in my head. Obviously I play too many Zelda games...

Disclaimer: I bought a copy of the game. So technically I own _**a**_ FFX? :D I own all the bad parts and grammar mistakes... T^T

* * *

Title: A New Way to Play  
Chapter Six: A Ronso's Tale Part 1

"SHITFUUUUCK!"

The bottom of Steve's stomach dropped faster than his descent down the mountain. The wind roared stringing his eyes and all exposed skin as they plummeted through the chilly fog. Jukala who was more used to free-falling off the cliff was the first to recover. So while Steve flailed about, she readjusted their course towards one of the tall spires of rock. The young ronso's legs bent to absorb some of the force of the impact, and the muscles in her legs bunched before she kicked off tightening her grip on the teenager's wrist.

The large monster landed on the spot they were just in. The creature was easily large enough to span the gap between the stalagmites immediately after landing it aimed it's spinnerets and shot a web at them. Jukala shoved Steve in the other direction just in time for the web to pass harmlessly between them.

"QUICK GRAB!" Jukala yelled the unhelpful advice as she easily landed and clung to the cliff face.

Unlike Jukala's graceful landing on the cliff face the redhead crashed and slid down the rocky surface a fair distance before he could get a handhold. His earlier crash course in mountain climbing didn't actually help. Once again he thank the durability of his gloves. Little Bahamut sure knew how to make clothes. Off in the distance Steve could see Jukala quickly scaling the cliff. There was no way he could do that. Jukala looked like she would be able to handle herself in this terrain, but he was screwed.

The monster seemed to be regarding the both of them. It was deciding which one to target. The little ronso turned to Steve in horror. It was clear to all who it should go after. She began making her way over to him, but he couldn't let her do that. The girl would only get hurt trying to keep the both of them out of danger.

Those mighty wings whipped about again forcing the ronso to dig in her claws into the mountainside. Unfortunately Steve was tossed up into the air flipping head over heels and the Sinspawn moved into position underneath where he was going to land. The spider-crab creature flapped it's wings again sending Steve flying back up into the air helplessly. The act was horribly similar to those videos of killer whales tossing baby seals about in the air before eating them.

He had to get out of the air because he was a sitting duck. If only he was a superhero, the power of flight sounded really useful right now. Of course not all superheroes could fly there was Spiderman who had his webslinging and then there was Batman... Steve mentally slapped himself over the head. His weapon shards swirled about and formed a gun-like gauntlet. Steve fired at the closest rock wall. A chain with a hooked claw attached to the end shot out and buried itself deep. Steve's body jerked out of the air as his grappling gun retracted pulling himself out of the creature's snapping jaw's reach.

The teen only had moment to gain his bearings before he jumped off as the creature gave chased. Steve fired his grappling gun several times quickly changing positions as he lead it all over the foggy chasm. He had run into a dead end with all possible routes cut off by the approaching monsters. He braced himself. His adrenaline running at full force. The shards hovered over his free arm as he aimed it at the rushing monster. However it wasn't necessary.

"ARGH!" Jukala descended out of the sky like a missile. Steve blinked owlishly at the surrealism of the scene as the little cute ronso kicked the giant monster many times her size out of the sky. Did she just do Thrust Kick? Jukala was able to use ronso rage moves? Through the new opening Steve fired his grappling gun and grabbed Jukala out of the sky as he zoomed by. The monster vanished into the fog it's roaring echoing loudly about them.

This was a lot more nerve wracking as he strained his senses. There was no cool boss music composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Steve's quickened breathing sounded harsh in the sudden silence. Jukala had gone still staring off into the fog, and Steve could feel the the throb of his blood pumping.

Suddenly Jukala's ears twitched perking up briefly before they flattened down against her head. "MOVE!"

He didn't need to be told twice, and they zoomed off in the air to the closest stalagmite as a blast of light obliterated the area they were just in. Steve cursed as one of the creature's appendages appeared out of the fog and swatted them out of the air. Steve went one way, Jukala the other, and pain overwhelmed the teen's senses. With a grunt he crashed onto a hard surface. With a start his eyes popped opened, and he paled. He was on the creature's back, and judging from his hard landing the thing's body was armored.

It was a certain fact that bugs had numerous eyes. These numerous eyes formed together to form one big compound eye. It wasn't that all those extra eyes provided them with a better picture. All those eyes were great at detecting the smallest changes in light. Meaning that they were sensitive to movement which would explain why it was so hard to kill flies sometimes. What some people didn't realize was that many bugs had more eyes. Unlike their big compound eyes some bugs actually had simpler eyes on the back of their heads.

It was those eyes that locked onto the teen glowing eerily. On instinct he jabbed the eye with the sharp end of his gun. The monster reared in pain and bucked Steve off during painful thrashing. He flew up into the air, but his grapple was still wedged in tightly.

His free hand formed a giant blade and he retracted the chain sending himself flying straight back down towards the eye, sharp blade leading. There was a sickening wet crunch as his blow destroyed the eye. Fortunately like the Sinspawn they fought in Zanarkand the organ didn't explode in a bloody mess in his face and instead it simply vanish in a cloud of pyreflies.

With his grappling gun free from the eye, Steve quickly zoomed off the back as the monster gave off a horrible screeching noise. He nearly lost his precarious grip on the cliff in it's mad thrashings. In pain the monster rushed about, bumping and crashing into the walls of rocky spires. Steve yelped in surprise as Jukala appeared out of the fog and landed on the area above him with a loud thud.

"You okay?" Her feathered braids swayed wildly about in the wind as she hung upside down so that she could see him. The girl looked a little ruffed up from the last hit they had taken.

The redhead smiled at her reassuringly and wiped some blood out his eyes as it dripped from a cut on his forehead. He probably gotten it when he crashed into the cliff the first time. His adrenaline was still running high, but if they survive this he knew he was going to be in some pain.

The monster's cries had stopped. In other words it meant the thing was coming back. He turned to the ronso girl urgently. "Jukala, aim for the eyes!"

Her crimson eyes widen in shock. "No run? We fight?"

The smart thing would've been to flee. Steve was a fairly normal teen with a hobby playing video games and basketball with his friends. Steve repress the normal response of running away screaming for his life. (Besides he worked that out of his system back when he was in Zanarkand and Bahamut kicked his ass.) He was somewhat emboldened after destroying the eyes since it reminded him of the fight against the phallic monster they killed. "We're kicking it's ass!" At his words her smile turned impishly feral like he gave her permission to do something forbidden. Her ears perked and she turned her head in one direction.

"IT BACK!" Showing off her ronso strength she yanked his hook right out of the rock as she release her grip on the wall. Their plummet just barely took them out of the range of it's last attack. Steve quickly regain his bearings and Jukala split off searching for a higher position. Splitting up made them harder to target. Steve had a harder time of tracking Jukala's position since the thing came back for revenge for the last attack, and the mist was not helping one bit.

Unfortunately Steve found himself thrust into the role of being the distraction. Swerving to avoid a web bullet he found that being the distraction was horrible. Especially when the sticky web hit the chain pinning it to the wall causing him to get very intimate with the cliff. Stunned with the impact the teen's concentration waned and his grappling gun vanished. The red head dropped out of the sky without his support and the fiend swung one of its numerous appendages in an interception course to crush him.

At the last moment Jukala tackled Steve in midair and the monster's leg cracked the rocks where the barely conscious teen was a moment ago. Denied its kill the spider creature lashed out with its other legs and soon the small ronso found herself desperately dodging the attacks. After evading one strike and landing on the leg she knew that they would not survive long if the redhead did not wake up. The teen was just barely healed of the wounds that he had received protecting her. Jukala was still very much a kid and not at all knowledgeable about healing arts. All she knew was that he needed to wake up fast. So she did what usually worked on her father. The small ronso bit down on his ear with her very sharp teeth.

"YEOW!" Steve returned to the land of the living half blinded by tears of pain and half blinded by white-feathered, beaded braids. Before he could retaliate Jukala shoved him as another attack passed between them. He barely had time to breathe as he jumped and ran length-wise down one of the spider's legs. Except for the cold mist this was a bit like running across the burning building in Zanarkand.

Steve found another opening and managed to take out another eye with his grappling gun. He quickly secured himself down as the monster took them for a ride as it thrashed in pain. From where he could see her, Jukala looked as ill as he did from their little spider ride. Running around on the thing trying to kill was not such a good idea. Not that it was their idea in the first place. Steve created a roped and as he dodged through the writhing limbs he tangled some of the legs together. Jukala was able to get through the opening and out of reach of the attacks.

"Ack!" The fiend tried taking advantage of his distracted state and at the last second he took a clumsy leap off his perch in order to dodge wild attack as one of the monsters legs destroyed the area he had just occupied. Small and large pieces of rock flew all over. On instinct Steve formed a hook and chain throwing it around the appendage as he fell past. His training as a gymnast helped as he managed to swing himself around the rock spire effectively tying it in place. The redhead winced in pain when he landed a safe distance away. Some of the rocks had managed to find a mark.

Suddenly a huge wave of fire appeared burning up the surrounding fog as it hurtled through the air. The air cleared as it was filled with screeching. Amazingly Jukala was able to perform a Fire Breath. How did she get such dangerous skills? Didn't ronsos have to face the fiends in order to learn these moves? What the hell did the little ronso do in her spare time? Jukala was in mid leap when the fiend shot a blob of web. The force of it shot her out of the air and stuck her to the wall much to her dismay. Luckily for her the restraints kept her from falling to her death. Making sure it keep himself out of range and wary for the web bullet things Steve hurried over to free Jukala.

When he got there, she was mumbling to herself. "Be hard to clean this out of fur." Steve's eye twitched. He was going to ask her if she was okay. Hitting the wall looked like it hurt, but that answered his question. All she was concerned about was her fur. Though to be fair her fur was white, and it was probably a lot harder to keep clean. He formed a large shield when another web blob came at them.

He went to work, freeing the ronso from her restraints as the creature continued to fire blind. It seemed that her last attack had managed to take out the rest of it's eyes.

"That thing is tough." The teen awkwardly hacked at the tough web with a hastily made knife. "We're going to need something powerful to take it out."

"Uh... don't tell Daddy, but Jukala has something in back pouch that might help." Steve's brow perked at the guilty expression. He reached into her pouch and pulled out a...

"A grenade?" He stared at the Al Bhed grenade incredulously. Most children were more apt to have gum or crayons in their pockets. But then she was a cat humanoid creature thing so maybe having explosives was considered the norm.

"Jukala took it off one of the machina around here. Knows machina is bad, but was curious!"

He sighed as she rambled off excuses. In a few moments he managed to free her. "How about we use up all the grenades so that your dad won't find them?" She quickly agreed and passed him half of her stash. "Well they never covered grenade use in school, but how hard could it be to pull the pin and throw?"

Steve was not a pro football player to be able to lob a grenade all the way to the fiend. With a feral grin reminiscent of Jukala and a quick thought he formed a grenade launcher. He was getting better at materializing weapons even if he was no closer to understanding how he was doing it. Jukala gasped with the appearance of more forbidden machina. With no remorse of aiming at a pinned opponent, Steve aimed the weapon and fired nearly losing his perch from the recoil in the process. The explosive hit with force making the monster it lose it's footing. Fortunately for it the chain was still restraining one of it's legs, and the fiend was sent spinning around the spire.

Jukala proved that she had a throwing arm just as good as Wakka's and threw her grenade unaided. The explosion sent it flying back in the direction it came from. Pretty soon the battle turned into the weirdest games of tether ball ever played. One lucky wild shot from the creature had the both of them diving off to avoid the attack. It threw off the Steve's aim and the explosion hit the chain causing it to break. In the resulting chaos all three tumbled off into the abyss.

The red head skidded and tumbled painfully before a snowy ledge stopped his descent. Still dazed Steve looked up as a giant shadow blanketed the area around him. It took him a moment to realize that the humongous monsters was about to come crashing down on him. There was no way he could dodge this.

"I'm so fucked…"

The tremor could be felt by all those in the upper reaches of the mountain.

* * *

Elsewhere, near the base of Gagazet one young, unfortunate ronso was being laughed at by his peers when a tremor knocked a load of snow onto his head. The proud ronso warrior (in training) did not appreciate his fellow warriors (in training) laughing at him, even if he did look like some frosted blueberry pastry.

He snarled at them when they began taunting his lack of awareness. There was no way a great ronso warrior (in training) like him should be compared to a flan of all things. The humiliated ronso tackled his friend and soon within the chaos they all got pulled in. Now they were all snow covered.

One of the older warriors came by a few moments later. The elder had also felt the tremors and was in the midst of investigating, instead he ended up lecturing the foolish pups for their recklessness. They were supposed to be learning how to track. Some of the older warriors had laid down some false trails for the young ones to follow (not that they were supposed to know were fake). Their task was to bring in whatever they were tracking in as proof. However making a ruckus in an attempt to attract their game was not only foolish and dangerous, but also a dishonorable way to go about it. (Not to mention they wouldn't pass since there were older hunters waiting at the end of the tracks to pass them.)

The older blonde ronso ended the lecture with a earth trembling roar that had the group scrambling to their forgotten task. As he watched the last of their tails disappear out of sight, he had to admit to himself that their stealth skills were not all that terrible. Was the large tremor caused by the pups using a Ronso Rage skill? With narrowed amber eyes he looked around the area for signs of any recently used skills. There were none. His hands curled into claws as he let out what sounded like guttural rumbling curses under his breath.

* * *

It was dark and suffocating. There was a horrific crash and a sense of weightlessness consumed him. His heart pounded painfully against his ribcage in a futile effort to gain it's freedom. Being so acutely aware of his heart seemed like an odd thing if he was about to die, or was he already dead already? The wounds from the battle still ached horribly. Suddenly the sense of weightlessness ended and he was falling back to earth. (Or maybe he should say Spira considering where he was.)

The teen howled in pain as he landed on his tailbone awkwardly. Green eyes opened just to shut just as fast to protect them from the dust still settling. Hacking and spluttering Steve raised his sleeve to cover his nose and mouth. In some miracle he survive, but what happened to the large creature that was about to crush him to death. Maybe he should just shrug it off and be glad he wasn't a human pancake.

A few moments passed by with Steve wondering about what had happened. Where was Jukala? He would've gone looking for her if he was able to see. It wasn't really wise considering he could walk off the ledge and die from the fall. The giant monster wouldn't have to kill him. His own stupidity could do that for him. Finally he managed to open his eyes without them watering from the dust. Did all the dust get knocked loose from that impact? Thankfully it didn't start an avalanche since there wasn't a lot of snow build up in this area. That would be the last thing they needed.

"JUKALA?" The teen gagged on the lingering dust after his shout. "Oh God! Her dad is going to literally maul me if she's dead!"

There was a whoosh of air and Jukala landed next to him not looking as white as she normally did. Though dirty and with some additional tears and scrapes, Jukala was for the most part was untouched. Must have been nice not being targeted by the creature during the battle. Her tail whipped about agitated setting the beaded accessory on the end to jangle together breaking the tense silence. The small ronso peered at him with squinted crimson eyes as she covered her own mouth and nose. Steve could see that her sharper senses were giving her trouble.

"What happened to the monster?"

The answer came from somewhere unexpected. There was a loud grating sound and Steve nearly had an accident when a large boulder crashed to the ground next to them. Sparring a wide-eyed, horrified glance at the rock that nearly killed them, Steve followed Jukala's gaze wondering what had caught her attention. (It must have been something big if it could pull your attention away from your own near death?)

The teen made a sound that he would denied vehemently if it was ever brought up in the future, tripping over his feet and further abusing his tailbone. For there skewered through the middle by the rocky stalagmite was the creature. It hung there limply it's glowing body markings flickering weakly.

"I thought these things were supposed to disappear in a cloud of pyreflies or something when they die?" Steve grumbled as he gently eased himself back onto his feet with a wince. The pain from the earlier hits were settling in. They both quickly tensed when the spider creature weakly thrashed it's numerous limbs as if in protest to his words. It quickly tire itself out and went back to hanging there limp watching them.

Steve felt like laughing hysterically. After all that and the thing was still not dead. Perhaps he should be proud of himself because with Jukala's help he managed a stalemate with a giant monster. He liked to see his friends claim something like that. Eyeballing the creature the teen had to admit to himself that he was too tired and in too much pain to find a way to finish it off. Maybe if they just leave it there it will eventually die? Then again in RPGs when you left an opponent alive they had a nasty habit of coming back later much stronger or they eventually end up joining your party. The urge to laugh hysterically bubbled up again as he imagined the monster following him all over Spira, and any attempts at trying to buy equipment for his _party member_.

"With this Daddy has to let Jukala join the hunts!"

That loud declaration had Steve's head whipping towards the white ronso in confusion. For some reason she was gleefully staring at the monsters her tail dancing behind her. A bit bemused he just stared as she continued her excited ramblings.

"When we bring this back for dinner, Daddy will then-"

"WAIT WUT?" Pain was slowing down his thinking processes down, but this was giving him mental whiplash. How did the creature go from _I-KILL-YOU_ to _Potential Party Member_ to _Dinner_? "I am not eating that!" He screamed with a incredulous look at the fiend. Eating a spider was gross enough, but a monster spider?

"Why not?" Jukala's injured tone almost broke Steve's resolve. "It Jukala first kill."

Steve facepalmed just so he wouldn't see that look she was sending him and the giant monster half dead over their heads. "Okay, one it's not completely dead yet. Two you don't know where that thing has been. Three it's bigger than your cave. Four even if it could fit in your cave, how would we get it there? Five from the way it was attacking us it probably eats humans and ronsos. Can you imagine cutting that thing up for dinner and finding bits of undigested bits of human and ronso? Six I don't think it's edible. Seven I'm sure your dad is more likely to kill us (more likely me) for engaging this thing. Eight eating spiders is gros-"

RAWARGH!

The loud roar reverberated through the area, and Steve was ready to stab himself with something pointy just to be done with it. Wasn't one giant monster enough for one day? Video games lied. Epic monsters battles were not fun. There was a sharp whistling sound as something traveled through the air at high speeds.

Wearily Steve formed a shield ready to protect both himself and Jukala, but the problem was that he couldn't tell where the attack was coming from. He watched Jukala since her senses were sharper. Abruptly a puzzled look crossed her face and she looked up. "Daddy?"

The teen glanced up in time to see a blue blur collide with a loud crash into the giant spider fiend. The monster was already dispersing into a large cloud of pyreflies before Yeku even hit the ground. The two youngsters stared at the older ronso in shock, but for different reasons.

"H-h-he killed it... with one hit? After everything we just went through! ONE HIT?"

"DADDY KILLED DINNER!" Later when Steve wasn't in shock he would wonder how she expected to eat it for dinner if it wasn't dead.

The shield nearly fell from the teen's lax fingers as the burly ronso ignored the pyreflies and stalked forward like a predator towards them. Steve's throat went dry, and from behind he could feel Jukala stuffing the last of her stash of Al Bhed grenades into his pouch. Was this girl trying to get him killed? Although she did have better sense of self-preservation than he did. What was it with younger kid's lack of remorse in sacrificing the older kid or siblings to get out of trouble. The brown-haired ronso had a murderous look on his face. It was very reminiscent of the look he gave Steve when he climbed out of the fayth wall spring. Unconsciously he tightened his grip on the shield, and it was a good thing he did as it was put to use a second later.

Yeku broke into a loping gallop, rushing at them. The ronso nearly tore the shield from Steve's hands as he bowled him over. The fierce ronso warrior finished his devastating combo by snatching Jukala up in his arms and began fussing over her. Steve climbed to his feet for the nth time today, and his shield broke into the numerous shards before disappearing completely. He must have been in some pain-induced hallucination and he quickly downed one of the potions in his pouch.

First impressions were apparently very misleading. What happened to the ronso who was about to tear his throat out with his teeth back at the Fayth wall? Steve stared in disbelief as Yeku totally ignored his bleeding ass to fret and clucked over Jukala. Who would've guessed that the big bad ronso was such a mother hen? Yeku turned her all around and even upside down in his search for any wounds. The ones that he found were immediately healed with a vengeance usually reserved for the battlefield. Jukala snorted at the treatment. Apparently this was a normal occurrence.

Steve ached all over. He felt like one large bruise. As Yeku went on explaining why Jukala's help in the domestic affairs wouldn't work out, the teen eyed the snow bank next to him. Why not? It wasn't like he could bathe in potions. Steve just let himself toppled right into the snow bank with a sigh. Not exactly an ice pack, but it certainly did the job. He half listened to Yeku's explanation as the pain numbed.

" -can not. Sinspawn are seething with Sin's toxin. Sin's toxin messes with head. Make forget many things. Jukala want to forget Daddy?" At this point in the lecture he already had his young daughter weeping apologies and promises to be good punctured by wails that she would never forget her daddy into his fur. Satisfied that one of the youngsters was properly chastised, Yeku began to look around for the other one. Yeku's good eye started twitching when he found the boy sprawled nearly buried and face-down in the snow.

"What is it about snow and humans? Can't leave them alone with the snow for a couple hours before they go dying on you. Is it too pretty that it makes them linger around and forget that it could kill them? They should at least have the sense to grow fur or something before going traipsing over the frozen wastelands." The ronso pulled the dazed and barely conscious teen out of the snow bank and slung him over his shoulder. So annoyed and agitated he didn't notice that he slipped out of the normal ronso speech, but it wasn't like the other two were in any state to notice.

With his two passengers he effortlessly began the climb back to the cave. Maybe if he place the boy in front of the fire it would remind him that humans could die from overexposure to the cold.

* * *

Steve was finding it hard to leave the comforting haze of numbness that descended shortly after falling into the snow. It was very tempting to just fall asleep. The pain would just go away and could just relax. He began to get warmer and the pain began to return. Steve tried to cling even more desperately to the comforting numbness. Absently he noted that he began to shiver.

"Hmm not good..." The ground disappeared from the teen and the blazing warmth slowly vanished. "Jukala, stay here."

The teen was barely aware that he was being carried away further into the cave. Soon the air grew hot and humid. He was placed against some very warm stones. The pain came back as his limbs were moved around awkwardly. It was only when the bare skin of his back touched the hot stone that it register that he was being stripped of his clothes. Mortified he began fighting back, but for some reason his limbs weren't being as obedient.

"Good. Life is already returning."

Steve found himself easily overpowered, and the last of his clothing was gone. He frantically blinked his eyes wondering why everything was blurred. Something gripped his arm tightly and he was hauled to his feet. The redhead finally saw Yeku's yellow and white eyes before he was dunked down into hot water. After being cooked for ten seconds or so, Yeku pulled him back up. The ronso pulled him closer to the edge of the hot spring where Steve desperately clung to the rocks as he coughed out the water he accidentally inhaled.

Yeku watched him for a few more moments to see if the teen was coherent enough not to drown on his own. Somewhat amused at the embarrassed and horrified looks he was getting, Yeku gathered the slightly wet clothes together in a large pile.

"Stay in there till no longer cold." Expecting his order to be followed the older ronso left the room.

The redhead was nearly as red as his hair from both the heat and the embarrassment. He couldn't remember the last time someone else took off his clothes. No one has done that since he learned to dress himself years ago. There was something even more horrifying about a complete stranger, especially one that made one feel like he could kill him at any moment. Yeku's teeth snarling first impression was still stuck strongly in his mind despite seeing how much of a softie he was with his daughter.

Then again they did save his life. They could have just left him out there in the snow to die, but instead they healed him even taking him back to the home to do so. Yeku's actions were probably just continuing on that. The teen did feel better now that he had a chance to adjust to the water. The warm water eased the pain, and he felt himself relaxing.

"JUKALA, DO NOT GO IN THERE!"

Steve started in surprise at the loud roar, and instinctively squatted down when the white ronso appeared in the entrance to the small cave. She looked panicky and was clutching his bag of items. Upon spotting him she chucked the thing at his head before she was yanked out of sight by her tail.

Thankfully he was able to prevent himself from getting another brain injury. Placing the bag in front of him on the stones, he wonder what the whole episode was about. Steve slipped it open and found the source of her panic. The rest of the grenades from earlier were sitting on top. With a grimace he shove them all to the bottom of the bag. She was no doubt getting chewed out so maybe he will forgive her for shoving them on him earlier. It would've been messy if Yeku discovered them.

Said ronso strolled in with what looked like a very large ronso-size towel. There was an irritated look on his face and he was muttering things under his breath.

"-bit young... Yeku was suppose to have years before the talk."

Steve snapped the buckles closed on the bag, and watched as Yeku took a seat on the edge of the spring carefully placing the towel within reach. The teen resisted the urge to hide the bag, but that would look suspicious. After a tense moment that Steve spent mentally willing Yeku away, the ronso began talking staring off at the far wall.

"Yeku owes pup a life debt for saving my little one." The somber tone grabbed Steve's attention. "If Yeku had not stopped by pup, Yeku would not have heard the screams. Creatures of the mountain are not kind and Yeku would have lost daughter." The fearsome ronso's jaw tighten at the thought, and Steve wisely stayed quiet to allow the elder a moment to compose himself.

Instead the teen mused over the expression he caught on the Yeku's face. Ronsos though humanoid still had different facial structures, and it silently boggled his mind how that affected their expressions. Their jaws did not have the same length as a lion but the resemblance was there. No, the size was more closer to a human's proportions. Technically they didn't have any lips, and Steve eyed the thin line where upper jaw met lower jaw. The teen had gotten a good look earlier at how wide those jaws could open. Absently touching the corners of his mouth, he couldn't imagine what it must be like to have them stretching out to the middle of his cheeks. There was no way a ronso would be able to pout.

A glimpse at Yeku sent Steve ducking down into the water to drown his chuckles. Wouldn't do to laugh at the ronso who was being emotional over the near death of his daughter. That would be a messy death. The red head nearly swallowed the water when a large clawed hand wrapped around his upper arm and hauled him up so he wasn't submerged.

As he wiped the water out of his eyes Yeku was murmuring under his breath exasperated. "Cannot turn away for one second... humans have no sense of self-preservation." Steve snorted. Did the older warrior see him as suicidal? Considering the length of time they known each other and the amount of times Steve was dying or injured maybe it was not an unreasonable assumption to come to. "Young pup makes it very difficult to repay life debt."

"Steve. My name is Steve." He corrected absently. It was weird being called pup, especially from a creature that looked more feline than canine. "Wait, life debt?"

"Steve saved my young headstrong daughter. Jukala is still too young a pup. Yeku will repay the life debt instead."

The young teen blinked blankly at him. "I'm pretty sure you saved my life enough to repay this life debt." Unconsciously his hand came to rest on the area where he was gored. It was still a shock to know that he was still alive after something like that. It was the worst injury he had ever received in his life. He turned grateful green eyes at the ronso, "I think I should be the one thanking you."

Yeku only made a strange rumbling approving sound and roughly patted the teen on the head. The force of it nearly sending him under the water. "Steve is a brave little pup." The teen twitched at that comment. Steve's size was perfectly normal. Yeku was just a giant. "Moves well and shows some potential for a warrior, but Yeku could see you lack the proper battle instincts. Yeku has decided to repay the debt of life by teaching Steve how to live as a warrior. After eating Yeku will test Steve mettle for battle. When Yeku is done Steve will not just survive as a warrior but thrive." The older ronso made his way out of the chamber.

The red head wasn't sure what to think of this new development. Stunned at the offer he wasn't really thinking when the next words were out of his mouth.

"We're not having spider for lunch, are we?"

* * *

(A/N:)  
I think ronso speech is messing up my grammar.

The whole striping scene was a bit awkward to write... was it just as awkward to read? Originally it went more into Steve's panicky reaction at being stripped but my mind kept screaming RAPE and I had to dump it as I went to go hurl or something.

(*skips off to either work on the next chapter of Cub of the Pride or review other people's fics*) ... (*slinks back because she realized that skipping away from the computer makes it impossible to accomplish either one of those tasks*)

Preview:  
Chapter seven: A Ronso's Tale Part 2

"I don't get it. Wouldn't it make more sense if the Ronso guide the summoners up the mountain?"

Yeku looked down at the bundled up human in his care. Thankfully they were on one of the more human friendly trails that the summoners used on their pilgrimage. "If summoners are too weak to pass through the sacred mountains then they stand no chance in defeating Sin."

The teen hid his wince from Yeku. Ronso society was a bit harsh. Only the strongest survive. No wonder Kimahri was picked on since he was considered a runt among his people.


End file.
